Thinking carefully about equity and accountability

Phi Delta Kappan

Volumn 82, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 293-299

  Scheurich, James Joseph ^a   Skrla, Linda ^b   Johnson, Joseph F ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

^b TEXAS A AND M UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0007268437     PISSN: 00317217     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/003172170008200411     Document Type: Article

References (35)

1. See, for example, Walter Haney, "The Myth of the 'Texas Miracle' in Education Reform," paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, 2000;
2. and Gary Orfield and Johanna Wald, "Testing, Testing," The Nation, 5 June 2000, available at http:// pastthenation.com/issue/000605/0605orfield.shtml.
3. Our colleagues include Pedro Reyes, Jay Scribner, Lonnie Wagstaff, Alicia Paredes-Scribner, and Uri Treisman. See also Joseph F. Johnson, Jr., The Promise of School Reform in Texas (Austin: Charles A. Dana Center, University of Texas, 1998);
4. Mary A. Raglan, Rose Asera, and Joseph F. Johnson, Jr., Urgency, Responsibility, Efficacy: Preliminary Findings of a Study of High-Performing Texas School Districts (Austin: Charles A. Dana Center, University of Texas, 1999);
5. Pedro Reyes, Jay D. Scribner, and Alicia Paredes-Scribner, Lessons from High-Performing Hispanic Schools: Creating Learning Communities (New York: Teachers College Press, 1999);
6. James Joseph Scheurich, "Highly Successful and Loving, Public Elementary Schools Populated Mainly by Low-SES Children of Color: Core Beliefs and Cultural Characteristics," Urban Education, vol. 33, 1998, pp. 451-91;
7. and Linda Skrla et al., "Accountability for Equity: Can State Policy Leverage Social Justice?," paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, 2000.
8. David Grissmer and Ann Flanagan, Exploring Rapid Achievement Gains in North Carolina and Texas (Washington, D.C.: National Education Goals Panel, 1998).
9. Linda M. McNeil, "Creating New Inequalities: Contradictions of Reform," Phi Delta Kappan, June 2000, pp. 728-34,
10. which was derived from her book Contradictions of School Reform: Educational Costs of Standardized Testing (New York: Routledge, 2000).
11. Lisa D. Delpit, "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children," Harvard Educational Review, vol. 58, 1988, pp. 280-98.
12. Richard R. Valencia, The Evolution of Deficit Thinking: Educational Thought and Practice (London: Falmer, 1997);
13. and Angela Valenzuela, Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999).
14. We are in the second year of an in-depth study of four Texas districts that have demonstrated district-wide success with children of color and low-income children. The members of our research team - the three authors as well as Jim Koschoreck, Dawn Hogan, and Pam Smith - have presented papers on this study at both the 1999 and 2000 meetings of the American Educational Research Association and at the 1998 and 1999 conferences of the University Council on Educational Administration. The Sid W. Richardson Foundation has funded this study.
15. Our selection criteria for these successful districts included not only high levels of success on the state tests, but also such criteria as enrollment in Advanced Placement courses, SAT/ACT scores, dropout rates, ninth-grade retention rates, percentages assigned to special education, and test-exemption percentages, including English as a second language/bilingual exemption rates. While these districts were not at ideal levels in all areas, they were typically better than state averages for similar districts.
16. Ronald R. Edmonds, "Effective Schools for the Urban Poor," Educational Leadership, October 1979, p. 23.
17. Jane Clark Lindle, "'Hasn't Anyone Else Done This Right?': A Field Note on the Political Realities and Perceptions in Modifying Kentucky's High-Stakes Accountability System," paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, 1999.
18. Jessica L. Sandham, "Calif. Education Initiatives Criticized as Lacking Cohesion," Education Week, 7 June 2000, p. 19.
19. Chandra Muller and Kathryn S. Schiller, "Leveling the Playing Field? Students' Educational Attainment and States' Performance Testing," paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, 2000.
20. Jeannie Oakes, Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985).
21. McNeil, Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality op. cit.
22. Linda Darling-Hammond and Deborah Loewenberg Ball, Teaching for High Standards: What Policymakers Need to Know and Be Able to Do (Philadelphia: National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, CPRE No. JRE-04, 1998);
23. and Ronald F. Ferguson, "Can Schools Narrow the Black-White Test Score Gap?," in Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, eds., The Black-White Test Score Gap (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1998), pp. 273-317.
24. Quoted in Debra Viadero, "High-Stakes Tests Lead Debate at Researchers' Gathering," Education Week, 3 May 2000, p. 6.
25. See, for example, Robert L. Linn, "Assessments and Accountability," Educational Researcher, March 2000, pp. 4-16.
26. Pamela Keating, "Understanding Standards," paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, 2000.
27. Stafford Hood, "Culturally Responsive Performance-Based Assessment: Conceptual and Psychometric Considerations," Journal of Negro Education, vol. 67, pp. 187-96;
28. and Laurence Parker, "Comments for 'Accountability for Equity: Can State Policy Leverage Social Justice?,'" paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, 2000.
29. This perspective is directly connected to the kind of culturally relevant pedagogy advocated by Gloria Ladson-Billings in Dream-keepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994).
30. Scheurich, Dream-keepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children op. cit.
31. Brian Rowan and Cecil G. Miskel, "Institutional Theory and the Study of Educational Organizations," in Joseph Murphy and Karen Seashore Louis, eds., Handbook of Research on Educational Administration, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999), pp. 359-83.
32. Haney, Handbook of Research on Educational Administration, 2nd ed. op. cit.
33. Debra Viadero, "Testing System in Texas Yet to Get a Final Grade," Education Week, 31 May 2000, pp. 1, 20-21;
34. personal communication with Edward Fuller;
35. and Martin Carnoy, Susanne Loeb, and Tiffany L. Smith, "Do Higher State Test Scores in Texas Make for Better High School Outcomes?," paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, 2000.