Unpacking "Everyone": The Assemblage of Accountors to Whom Principals Are Accountable

• In Event: 70.015 - Leveraging Social Networks Among School Leaders

Abstract

Drawn from a broader study of high school principals’ multiple accountabilities, this paper presents a typology of their accountors and the nature of the accountability relationships that principals have with them. It aims at giving practitioners, and those who train and/or support them. tools to make sense of the overwhelming morass of accountors so commonly labeled, “Everyone.” Drawn from sixty hours of in-depth interviews with practicing principals, it found thirty categories of accountors, grouped into seven super-categories. Most notably, organizational and legal bases for accountability were overwhelmed by inter-personal relationships and professional/ethical responsibilities to support others as bases for accountability. This undermines the potential for test-based or other top-down or bureaucratic forms of accountability to improve schools systemically.

Author

• Alexander Mishra Hoffman, AleDev Research