Rating the Ratings: A Framework for Understanding and Evaluating Differences Among Accountability Systems (Poster 8)

• In Event: Division H Graduate Student Poster Session: Fresh Perspectives on Research, Evaluation, Assessment, and Accountability in Schools

Abstract

Since the passage of NCLB in 2002, accountability systems have grown across the United States. Students take tests in 3rd through 8th grades and again in high school to help determine whether their schools are adequately serving them. Twenty years after the implementation of NCLB, we have many examples of accountability systems over many years that can help us understand the ways in which accountability systems have succeeded in improving student performance and the ways in which they have failed to produce improvement or even led to negative outcomes. In examining what we have learned from past accountability systems, we can begin to develop better ones. Here, I propose a framework for understanding what makes an accountability system work well.

Author

• Ayah Kamel, Northwestern University