Turning the Accountability Tables: Ten Progressive Lessons from One 'Backward' State

Phi Delta Kappan

Volumn 85, Issue 5, 2004, Pages 352-360

  Gallagher, Chris W ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA LINCOLN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0346671203     PISSN: 00317217     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/003172170408500505     Document Type: Review

References (31)

1. Editorial Projects in Education, Quality Counts 2003, available at http://www.edweek.org/sreports/qc03.
2. Ellen Kohtz, "Reflection," in Authentic Evaluation: Nebraska Teachers Design Assessment Through Active Classroom Learning (Lincoln, Neb.: Goals 2000 Assessment Project, 2000), p. 8.
3. Lily Tomlin, quoted in Sandra Murphy and Barbara Grant, "Portfolio Approaches to Assessment: Breakthrough or More of the Same?," in Edward M. White et al., eds., Assessment of Writing (New York: Modern Language Association, 1999), p. 284.
4. An exception is a policy brief released by the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST). The brief usefully calls for evaluation of accountability systems, and its proposed standards - on system components, testing standards, stakes, public reporting formats, and evaluation - offer some valuable guidelines, such as using multiple measures of student learning and designing appeal procedures to contest rewards and sanctions. At the same time, the brief has limited utility in asking more fundamental questions, such as "Why an accountability system in the first place?" and "Who has a voice in its development and enactment?" See Eva L. Baker et al., "Standards for Educational Accountability Systems," CRESST, Policy Brief No. 5, Winter 2002, available at http://cresst96.cse.ucla.edu/products/policybriefs_set.htm.
5. Brian M. Stecher and Laura S. Hamilton, "Putting Theory to the Test," RAND Review, Spring 2002, pp. 17-23.
6. Linda Darling-Hammond, The Right to Learn (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997). Like Deborah Meier, I use "trust" not to mean blind faith, but instead an earned trust in which teachers and schools are expected to demonstrate wise professional judgment. See Deborah Meier, In Schools We Trust (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002).
7. Linda Darling-Hammond, The Right to Learn (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997). Like Deborah Meier, I use "trust" not to mean blind faith, but instead an earned trust in which teachers and schools are expected to demonstrate wise professional judgment. See Deborah Meier, In Schools We Trust (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002).
8. Lawrence Cremin, The Transformation of the School (New York: Vintage, 1961); Larry Cuban and David Tyack, Tinkering Toward Utopia (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995); and Darling-Hammond, op. cit.
9. Lawrence Cremin, The Transformation of the School (New York: Vintage, 1961); Larry Cuban and David Tyack, Tinkering Toward Utopia (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995); and Darling-Hammond, op. cit.
10. Lawrence Cremin, The Transformation of the School (New York: Vintage, 1961); Larry Cuban and David Tyack, Tinkering Toward Utopia (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995); and Darling-Hammond, op. cit.
11. See Peter H. Johnston, Constructive Evaluation of Literate Activity (New York: Longman, 1992).
12. See www.fairtest.org for information on grassroots anti-testing alliances.
13. See Darling-Hammond, op. cit.
14. John Dewey, Democracy and Education (1916; reprint, New York: Free Press, 1966), p. 120.
15. John Dewey, The School and Society (1900; reprint, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956), p. 3.
16. All of these networks and organizations have active websites.
17. National assessment expert Richard Stiggins, for instance, recently told Nebraska educators that the state is "leading the nation in assessment." Also, in 2002 the National Council on Measurement in Education honored the University of Nebraska's teacher education program for its innovative "assessment cohort" program, which awards graduate credit for studying and developing classroom assessments. That program is currently developing the country's first endorsement in assessment leadership. Finally, Nebraska's STARS system has received considerable attention in the pages of the Kappan: see Chris Gallagher, "A Seat at the Table," Phi Delta Kappan, March 2000, pp. 502-7; and Pat Roschewski, "Nebraskans Reach for the STARS," Phi Delta Kappan, April 2001, pp. 611-15.
18. National assessment expert Richard Stiggins, for instance, recently told Nebraska educators that the state is "leading the nation in assessment." Also, in 2002 the National Council on Measurement in Education honored the University of Nebraska's teacher education program for its innovative "assessment cohort" program, which awards graduate credit for studying and developing classroom assessments. That program is currently developing the country's first endorsement in assessment leadership. Finally, Nebraska's STARS system has received considerable attention in the pages of the Kappan: see Chris Gallagher, "A Seat at the Table," Phi Delta Kappan, March 2000, pp. 502-7; and Pat Roschewski, "Nebraskans Reach for the STARS," Phi Delta Kappan, April 2001, pp. 611-15.
19. See Roschewski, op. cit.
20. Nebraska assessment results are available at http://reportcard.nde. state.ne.us.
21. Chris Gallagher, "Charting STARS: The State of Assessment in the State of Nebraska," Year One Report, STARS Research and Evaluation Study, August 2002, executive summary available at www.nde.state. ne.us/stars/resources/execsummary0101.pdf; see also Chris Gallagher, "Charting STARS: Sustainability as Opportunity and Challenge," Year Two Report, STARS Comprehensive Evaluation Project, August 2003, available at www.nde.state.ne.us/stars/index.html.
22. Chris Gallagher, "Charting STARS: The State of Assessment in the State of Nebraska," Year One Report, STARS Research and Evaluation Study, August 2002, executive summary available at www.nde.state. ne.us/stars/resources/execsummary0101.pdf; see also Chris Gallagher, "Charting STARS: Sustainability as Opportunity and Challenge," Year Two Report, STARS Comprehensive Evaluation Project, August 2003, available at www.nde.state.ne.us/stars/index.html.
23. This useful formulation comes from Darling-Hammond, p. 66.
24. On learning organizations as a key to sustainable reform, see Lauren B. Resnick and Megan Williams Hall, "Learning Organizations for Sustainable Education Reform," Daedalus, Fall 1998, pp. 89-118.
25. For a discussion of commitment and compliance, see Elaine Martin, Changing Academic Work: Developing the Learning University (Buckingham, U.K.: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press, 1999).
26. Alfie Kohn, The Case Against Standardized Testing (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 2000).
27. See, for instance, Michael Apple, Educating the 'Right' Way (New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2001).
28. Pat Roschewski, "A Study of Effective Assessment Practices, Processes, and Procedures" (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nebraska, 2002).
29. Beverly Falk, The Heart of the Matter (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 2000).
30. Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam, "Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment," Phi Delta Kappan, October 1998, pp. 139-48.
31. Richard J. Stiggins, "Assessment Crisis: The Absence of Assessment FOR Learning," Phi Delta Kappan, June 2002, pp. 758-65.