Educational Accountability, Historically Considered

• In Event: Accountability and Assessment Policy: Exploring History and Impact

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to offer a more cogent policy history of the movements that preceded the standards-based reform efforts of 1980s and 1990s. Because policy scholars are familiar with many of the developments after the late 1980s, we devote most of our attention to the years between 1963 and 1989, a period during which policymakers dedicated an often-unrecognized amount of attention to discussing and debating objectives that schools hoped to ensure their children reached. This paper charts the changes in notions of educational standards and outcomes that took place during reform movements devoted to establishing behavioral and instructional objectives, minimum competency testing, and outcomes-based education.

Authors

• David A. Gamson, The Pennsylvania State University

• Sarah Anne Eckert, The Pennsylvania State University