Search results for: Accountability

This article describes OECD ideological and policy changes that form the background for PISA. Furthermore, the author focuses on the OECD’s governance mechanisms and the obstacles it presents to public scrutiny. The author argues that the pursuit of market mechanisms posed both educational and political problems on the OECD's accountability regime. He argues that in order to redress the asymmetries between strong influence and weak democratic control will require profound advances in the organization of the global public sphere. He proposes to broaden the global educational discourse, in which the accountability narrative is complemented by narratives of local institutional learning, educational tradition, democratic participation, and cultural diversity.

The current research examines the relative effectiveness of universities and new program types using the diverse market in Texas. The authors examine program effectiveness through a framework integrating certificate pathways, organizational goals, and market incentives. The authors found that independent nonprofits have positive effects on student performance that are not explained by teacher sorting or program selectivity, and these effects only occur in math. Furthermore, independent nonprofits perform well with most high-risk populations but have no advantage with Black students, no presence on rural schools, and negative effects, and designated special education (SPED) students. The authors argue that these findings suggest that policy makers should proceed with caution when advocating for expanding or limiting any particular program type.

The purpose of this project is to describe how one of the largest teacher education programs in the nation has taken a lead position toward evaluating itself, and has begun to take responsibility for its impact on the public school system. This research also presents the process of establishing a self-evaluation initiative across the state of Arizona and provides a roadmap for how other colleges and universities might begin a similar process. This work resulted in a set of seven “beyond excuses” imperatives that participants involved in the T-PREP consortium developed and participants at the local level carried forward. The seven key imperatives are important for other colleges of education to consider as they too embark on pathways toward examining their teacher education programs and using evaluation results in both formative and summative ways.

This article aims to describe a conceptual model, including specific skills and processes of data-based decision making, to address accountability demands for continuous improvement based upon student learning results across multiple contexts. Considerations for implementation by teacher educators will be shared to build a comprehensive system of sustained school reform.