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Article
Publication date: 16 May 2008

Toward a higher standard: the changing organizational context of accountability for educational results

David A. Shupe

The purpose of this paper is to present the full range of choices that academic institutions presently have for attending to educational results.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the full range of choices that academic institutions presently have for attending to educational results.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach takes the form of a systematic comparison of the eight models currently available to colleges and universities for attending to educational results, relative to four necessary organizational purposes: individual student improvement, individual student accountability, organizational improvement, and organizational accountability.

Findings

This is a time of innovation, not of standardization. As new choices become available, the standard for accountability for educational results continues to rise.

Originality/value

The choices, ranging from established practices to expected alternatives to unexpected innovations, differ significantly in their capacities.

Details

On the Horizon, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120810874487
ISSN: 1074-8121

Keywords

  • Higher education
  • Management accountability
  • Assessment
  • Learning
  • Technology

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Article
Publication date: 10 August 2012

At‐risk student averse: risk management and accountability

Julian Vasquez Heilig, Michelle Young and Amy Williams

The prevailing theory of action underlying accountability is that holding schools and students accountable will increase educational output. While accountability's theory…

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Abstract

Purpose

The prevailing theory of action underlying accountability is that holding schools and students accountable will increase educational output. While accountability's theory of action intuitively seemed plausible, at the point of No Child Left Behind's national implementation, little empirical research was available to either support or critique accountability claims or to predict the long‐term impact of accountability systems on the success of at‐risk students and the schools that served them. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the work and perceptions of school teachers and leaders as they seek to meet the requirements of educational accountability.

Design/methodology/approach

Interviews with 89 administrators, staff and teachers revealed a variety of methods utilized to manage risks associated with low test scores and accountability ratings.

Findings

The findings reported in this paper challenge the proposition that accountability improves the educational outcomes of at‐risk students and indicates that low‐performing Texas high schools, when faced with the press of accountability, tend to mirror corporate risk management processes, with unintended consequences for at‐risk students. Low‐scoring at‐risk students were often viewed as liabilities by school personnel who, in their scramble to meet testing thresholds and accountability goals, were at‐risk student averse – implementing practices designed to “force kids out of school.”

Originality/value

In this paper, the authors use theory and research on risk management to analyze the work and perceptions of school teachers and leaders as they seek to meet the requirements of educational accountability. This paper is among the first to use this particular perspective to conceptualize and understand the practices of educational organizations with regards to the treatment of at‐risk students attending low‐performing high schools in the midst of accountability.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 50 no. 5
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09578231211249826
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

  • United States of America
  • Secondary schools
  • Urban areas
  • Rural areas
  • Students
  • Educational administration
  • Ethnic groups
  • Minorities
  • Urban education
  • Accountability
  • Risk analysis

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Article
Publication date: 1 February 2004

The edge of chaos: School administrators and accountability

Anthony H. Normore

Much has been written about student accountability, teacher accountability, and school accountability. More limited research is available on administrator accountability…

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Abstract

Much has been written about student accountability, teacher accountability, and school accountability. More limited research is available on administrator accountability. Recently there have been substantial initiatives undertaken world‐wide to increase educational accountability. With increasing demands and changing expectations in the role of school administration, researchers, practitioners and policy makers and departments of education have become socially preoccupied with educational accountability. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive literature review on accountability of school administrators over the last two decades to demonstrate how aspiring, new and practicing school administrators understand and meet the demands of accountability in a time of tumultuous change when the stakes are high.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 42 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230410517477
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

  • North America
  • Leadership
  • Public schools
  • Expectation

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Book part
Publication date: 19 December 2016

Educational Excellence versus Educational Justice: How Latin American Policymakers Respond to These Competing Demands with the Evaluative State

Rolf Straubhaar

Throughout Latin America, policy-makers are struggling to reconcile two conflicting political pressures: (i) the push to become more globally competitive on the basis of…

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Abstract

Throughout Latin America, policy-makers are struggling to reconcile two conflicting political pressures: (i) the push to become more globally competitive on the basis of international assessments such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), and (ii) the simultaneous need to address long-standing, entrenched inequities in both educational quality and access throughout much of the region. This chapter documents how policy-making elites throughout Latin America are trying to address these two goals by incorporating “evidence-based” policy solutions that can be empirically defended as promoting equity. However, scholars throughout Latin America argue that instead of promoting equity, an increasing focus on accountability in educational policy at the national level throughout the region has resulted instead in a shift in priorities from the governance of educational systems to evaluation of those systems, with the state functioning primarily as an Evaluative State. This argument is developed through secondary analysis of the Hispanophone and Lusophone academic education literatures of Latin America, whose robust and rigorous studies of these trends at both national and regional levels remain little explored within the Anglophone academic tradition.

Details

The Global Educational Policy Environment in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S2053-769720160000026010
ISBN: 978-1-78635-044-2

Keywords

  • Critical policy genealogy
  • education policy
  • high-stakes accountability
  • Latin American public policy
  • neoliberalism
  • evaluation
  • evaluative state

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Book part
Publication date: 19 July 2007

Changing Contexts and Relationships in Educational Evaluation

Katherine E. Ryan

So I want to take you back to about 20 years ago, as a first year graduate student I was doing a research assistantship with a professor interested in math test…

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Abstract

So I want to take you back to about 20 years ago, as a first year graduate student I was doing a research assistantship with a professor interested in math test performance and motivation. This was the period when the U.S. was equally awed by the Japanese automobile import/production cycle and the Japanese educational system. The systems were both efficient and effective. As part of that assistantship, I helped some staff from the Midwest State Board of Education (MSBE) do a modest longitudinal study. It was all very informal – MSBE and Midwest University (MU) faculty thought it would be interesting to see how the students in 1984 compared with 1974 – called the Decade Study. MU faculty also wanted to pilot some scales assessing student motivation and test anxiety.

Details

Dilemmas of Engagement: Evaluation and the New Public Management
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-7863(07)10007-7
ISBN: 978-1-84950-439-3

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Article
Publication date: 6 February 2017

Personal accountability in education: measure development and validation

Zehava Rosenblatt

The purpose of this paper, three-study research project, is to establish and validate a two-dimensional scale to measure teachers’ and school administrators’ accountability…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper, three-study research project, is to establish and validate a two-dimensional scale to measure teachers’ and school administrators’ accountability disposition.

Design/methodology/approach

The scale items were developed in focus groups, and the final measure was tested on various samples of Israeli teachers and principals. Real-life accountability scenarios, individual work characteristics and performance evaluation were used for the validation. Correlational as well as multi-level statistical procedures were employed.

Findings

Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-dimensional structure: external and internal. Study 1 confirmed the convergent validity of the scale vis-à-vis accountability scenarios in teachers’ work. Study 2 confirmed its construct validity vis-à-vis related individual work characteristics such as goal orientation, work ethic and conscientiousness, using school principals as participants. Study 3 confirmed the scale’s predictive validity vis-à-vis teacher work performance.

Research limitations/implications

The scale developed in this study may be used to enhance research on the personal aspect of accountability, contributing to a better understanding of educational systems operating in an accountability environment.

Practical implications

The study offers researchers a tool to measure accountability from an individual perspective. The two-dimensional scale developed in this study may help to point out individual differences in teacher accountability disposition.

Social implications

The ability to assess personal accountability may contribute to society’s concern with school accountability and its effect on educators’ work.

Originality/value

Educational research in recent years is replete with studies on school accountability, but relatively little has been written on accountability at the individual level of analysis. Few scales exist that measure educators’ self-report accountability.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 55 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-10-2015-0093
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

  • Performance
  • Measurement
  • Teachers
  • Accountability

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Article
Publication date: 28 January 2014

Understanding validity issues surrounding test-based accountability measures in the US

Nancy Koh, Vikash Reddy and Madhabi Chatterji

This AERI-NEPC eBrief, the fourth in a series titled “Understanding validity issues around the world”, looks closely at issues surrounding the validity of test-based…

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Abstract

Purpose

This AERI-NEPC eBrief, the fourth in a series titled “Understanding validity issues around the world”, looks closely at issues surrounding the validity of test-based actions in educational accountability and school improvement contexts. The specific discussions here focus testing issues in the US. However, the general principles underlying appropriate and inappropriate test use in school reform and high stakes public accountability settings are applicable in both domestic and international settings. This paper aims to present the issues.

Design/methodology/approach

This policy brief is based on a synthesis of conference proceedings and review of selected pieces of extant literature. It begins by summarizing perspectives of an invited expert panel on the topic. To that synthesis, the authors add their own analysis of key issues. They conclude by offering recommendations for test developers and test users.

Findings

The authors conclude that recurring validity issues arise with tests used in school reform and public accountability contexts, because the external tests tend to be employed as policy instruments to drive reforms in schools, with unrealistic timelines and inadequate resources. To reconcile the validity issues with respect to educational assessment and forge a coherent understanding of validity among multiple public users with different agendas, the authors offer several recommendations, such as: adopt an integrated approach to develop content and standards of proficiency that represent a range of cognitive processes; support studies to examine validity of assessments and the effects of decisions taken with assessment data before results are fed into high stakes accountability-related actions that affect teachers, leaders or schools; align standards, curricula, instruction, assessment, and professional development efforts in schools to maximize success; increase capacity-building efforts to help teachers, administrators, policy makers, and other groups of test users learn more about assessments, particularly, about appropriate interpretation and use of assessment data and reports.

Originality/value

Baker points out that in response to growing demands of reformers and policy-makers for more frequent and rigorous testing programs in US public education, results from a single test tend to get used to meet a variety of public education needs today (e.g. school accountability, school improvement, teacher evaluation, and measurement of student performance). While this may simply be a way to make things more cost-efficient and reduce the extent of student testing in schools, a consequence is inappropriate test use that threatens validity in practice settings. This policy brief confronts this recurring validity challenge and offers recommendations to address the issues.

Details

Quality Assurance in Education, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-12-2013-0051
ISSN: 0968-4883

Keywords

  • Validity
  • High stakes testing
  • Educational accountability
  • Standards-based reforms

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Article
Publication date: 19 January 2015

From community to public ownership: a tale of changing accountabilities

Carolyn J. Fowler and Carolyn J. Cordery

The purpose of this paper is to examine changes in accountability as the provision and control of education moved from private nonprofit organisations to a public sector…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine changes in accountability as the provision and control of education moved from private nonprofit organisations to a public sector provider.

Design/methodology/approach

Analysis of nineteenth century archival documents from significant primary educational providers in a major early New Zealand settlement.

Findings

The nonprofit education provider utilised public meetings including public examinations, whose effect was to develop trust based on the education values it shared with its community of stakeholders. It also published financial reports which, along with inspections and statistical returns, were preferred once the government became the education provider. Such publications and inspections indicated bureaucracy and control. Nevertheless, government funding, rather than the nonprofit organisation’s dependence on its community, made education provision sustainable.

Research limitations/implications

It has been suggested that the differences between public sector and private sector accounting and accountability are not always sharply defined (Carnegie and Napier, 2012). However, this case study shows that a change of education provider did lead to a marked difference in accountability. While theory suggests that public sector accountability should enhance democracy, the party best meeting this brief was the nonprofit provider, with the public sector provider preferring hierarchical accountability. It could be argued that funding dependence drove these different approaches as community accountability was traded for financial security.

Originality/value

Distinctive study of accountability practices to external stakeholders, in a mid-nineteenth century education context.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 28 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-04-2014-1678
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

  • Education
  • Accountability
  • Nonprofit
  • Public sector

Content available
Article
Publication date: 10 August 2018

Perceptions of robotics emulation of human ethics in educational settings: a content analysis

Barbara Fedock, Armando Paladino, Liston Bailey and Belinda Moses

The purpose of this paper is to examine how robotics program developers perceived the role of emulation of human ethics when programming robots for use in educational…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how robotics program developers perceived the role of emulation of human ethics when programming robots for use in educational settings. A purposive sampling of online robotics program developer professional sites which focused on the role of emulation of human ethics used when programming robots for use in educational settings was included in the study. Content related to robotics program developers’ perceptions on educational uses of robots and ethics were analyzed.

Design/methodology/approach

The design for this study was a qualitative summative content analysis. The researchers analyzed keywords related to a phenomenon. The phenomenon was the emulation of human ethics programmed in robots. Articles selected to be analyzed in this study were published by robotics program developers who focused on robots and ethics in the education. All articles analyzed in this study were posted online, and the public has complete access to the studies.

Findings

Robotics program developers viewed the importance of situational human ethics interpretations and implementations. To facilitate flexibility, robotics program developers programmed robots to search computer-based ethics related research, frameworks and case studies. Robotics program developers acknowledged the importance of human ethics, but they felt more flexibility was needed in the role of how classroom human ethical models were created, developed and used. Some robotic program developers expressed questions and concerns about the implementations of flexible robot ethical accountability levels and behaviors in the educational setting. Robotics program developers argued that educational robots were not designed or programmed to emulate human ethics.

Research limitations/implications

One limitation of the study was 32 online, public articles written by robotics program designers analyzed through qualitative content analysis to find themes and patterns. In qualitative content analysis studies, findings may not be as generalizable as in quantitative studies. Another limitation was only a limited number of articles written by robotics programs existed which addressed robotics and emulation of human ethics in the educational setting.

Practical implications

The significance of this study is the need for a renewed global initiative in education to promote debates, research and on-going collaboration with scientific leaders on ethics and programming robots. The implication for education leaders is to provide ongoing professional development on the role of ethics in education and to create best practices for using robots in education to promote increased student learning and enhance the teaching process.

Social implications

The implications of this study are global. All cultures will be affected by the robotics’ shift in how students are taught ethical decision making in the educational setting. Robotics program developers will create computational educational moral models which will replace archetypal educational ethics frameworks. Because robotics program developers do not classify robots as human, educators, parents and communities will continue to question the use of robots in educational settings, and they will challenge robotics ethical dilemmas, moral standards and computational findings. The examination of robotics program developers’ perspectives through different lens may help close the gap and establish a new understanding among all stakeholders.

Originality/value

Four university doctoral faculty members conducted this content analysis study. After discussions on robotics and educational ethics, the researchers discovered a gap in the literature on the use of robots in the educational setting and the emulation of human ethics in robots. Therefore, to explore the implications for educators, the researchers formed a group to research the topic to learn more about the topic. No personal gains resulted from the study. All research was original. All cultures will be affected by the robotics’ shift in how students are taught ethical decision making in the educational setting. Robotics program developers will create computational educational moral models which will replace archetypal educational ethics frameworks. Because robotics program developers do not classify robots as human, educators, parents and communities will continue to question the use of robots in educational settings, and they will challenge robotics ethical dilemmas, moral standards, and computational findings. The examination of robotics program developers’ perspectives through different lens may help close the gap and establish a new understanding among all stakeholders.

Details

Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching & Learning, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JRIT-02-2018-0004
ISSN: 2397-7604

Keywords

  • Education
  • Ethics
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Robots
  • Emulation of human ethics
  • Robotics program developers

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Book part
Publication date: 23 September 2013

Accountability and Performance Management Systems within Private and Public Sector Organisational Change Processes

Gloria Agyemang and Bill Ryan

This chapter examines organisational change processes that occur when accountability demands from powerful external stakeholders change. It investigates, firstly, whether…

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Abstract

This chapter examines organisational change processes that occur when accountability demands from powerful external stakeholders change. It investigates, firstly, whether these external accountability demands impact on the performance management systems of two different types of organisations. Secondly, it considers whether the goals for improved performance contained within the external accountability demands are realised. The chapter derives its primary insights from analysing in-depth interviews with managers working in a private sector company and in public sector organisations. The analyses reveal complex organisational responses. In the public sector case study, the organisations tended to reorient their performance management systems towards the external accountability demands; whilst in the private sector organisation, pressures from falling share prices forced managers to focus their decision making on the preferred performance measures contained in shareholders’ accountability demands. However, whilst there is some evidence of performance management system changes, the desires for improved performance subsumed by the external accountability demands are not necessarily realised through the performance management system changes.

Details

Managing Reality: Accountability and the Miasma of Private and Public Domains
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1041-7060(2013)0000016004
ISBN: 978-1-78052-618-8

Keywords

  • Accountability
  • performance management systems
  • public sector management
  • organisational change
  • shareholder value

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