Contributed Commentary on
Volume 6 Number 1: Dorn The Political Legacy of School Accountability Systems

8 January 1998

Lyle V. Jones University of North Carolina lvjones@email.unc.edu

Sherman Dorn presents compelling reasons why we must attend to the political legacy of educational reform when thinking about the pros and cons of national school achievement tests. He emphasizes the ambiguities that surround the targets for accountability: public schools as institutions, teachers and school administrators, students, public policy, etc., many of which cannot be well served by a single index.

Dorn's case is bolstered substantially by a case study of the (failed) efforts in Great Britain, following the passage of the Education Reform Act of 1988, to establish mandatory national tests (see Black, 1994). Recently, I have argued that we are failing to adequately consider the lessons from Britain and from other sources as the nation continues to move towards a program for national testing (Jones, 1997a, 1997b).

Dorn reminds us that an apparently objective notion of a statistical accountability system serves to divert discussion from the purposes of schools and the means by which those purposes may be fulfilled. He correctly concludes that there is high risk that "the domination of crude statistical evaluation of schools will continue, to the detriment of schools, children, their families, and the public."

References

Black, P. J. (1994). Performance assessment and accountability: The experience in England and Wales. Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis, 16, 191-203.

Jones, L. V. (1997a). National tests and education reform: Are they compatible? [On-line]. Available: HTTP://www.ets.org/research/pic/jones.html

Jones, L. V. (1997b). National standards, Yes; national tests, No. [On-line]. Available: http://ericae2.educ.cua.edu//ft//nattest/oped5.htm