High-Stakes Reform: The Politics of Educational Accountability

236 Pages·2011·0.928 MB·English

by  Kathryn McDermott

High-Stakes Reform
P M C S
UBLIC ANAGEMENTAND HANGE ERIES
Beryl A. Radin, Series Editor
Editorial Board
Robert Agranoff William Gormley
Michael Barzelay Rosemary O’Leary
Ann O’M. Bowman Norma Riccucci
H. George Frederickson David H. Rosenbloom
Titles in the Series
Challenging the Performance Movement: Accountability, Complexity, and Democratic Values,
Beryl A. Radin
Charitable Choice at Work: Evaluating Faith-Based Job Programs in the States, Sheila
Suess Kennedy and Wolfgang Bielefeld
The Collaborative Public Manager: New Ideas for the Twenty-first Century, Rosemary
O’Leary and Lisa Blomgren Bingham, Editors
The Dynamics of Performance Management: Constructing Information and Reform, Donald
P. Moynihan
The Future of Public Administration around the World: The Minnowbrook Perspective,
Rosemary O’Leary, David M. Van Slyke, and Soonhee Kim, Editors
The Greening of the U.S. Military: Environmental Policy, National Security, and Organi-
zational Change, Robert F. Durant
How Management Matters: Street-Level Bureaucrats and Welfare Reform, Norma M.
Riccucci
Implementing Innovation: Fostering Enduring Change in Environmental and Natural
Resource Governance, Toddi A. Steelman
Managing within Networks: Adding Value to Public Organizations, Robert Agranoff
Measuring the Performance of the Hollow State, David G. Frederickson and H. George
Frederickson
Organizational Learning at NASA: The Challenger and Columbia Accidents, Julianne
G. Mahler with Maureen Hogan Casamayou
Public Administration: Traditions of Inquiry and Philosophies of Knowledge, Norma M.
Riccucci
Public Values and Public Interest: Counterbalancing Economic Individualism, Barry B ozeman
The Responsible Contract Manager: Protecting the Public Interest in an Outsourced World,
Steven Cohen and William Eimicke
Revisiting Waldo’s Administrative State: Constancy and Change in Public Administration,
David H. Rosenbloom and Howard E. McCurdy
High-Stakes Reform
The Politics of Educational
Accountability
Kathryn A. McDermott
Georgetown University Press/Washington, DC
Georgetown University Press, Washington, D.C. www.press.georgetown.edu
© 2011 by Georgetown University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this
book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McDermott, Kathryn A., 1969–
High-stakes reform : the politics of educational accountability / Kathryn A.
McDermott.
p. cm. — (Public management and change series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-58901-767-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Educational accountability—United States—States—Case studies.
2. School improvement programs—United States—States—Evaluation—
Case studies. 3. Educational accountability—Connecticut. 4. Educational
accountability—Massachusetts. 5. Educational accountability—New Jersey.
6. Education—Standards—Connecticut. 7. Education—Standards—
Massachusetts. 8. Education—Standards—New Jersey. I. Title.
LB2806.22.M38 2011
379.1'58973—dc22
2010043162
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American
National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
First printing
Printed in the United States of America
For Mark, Charlotte, and James
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xi
1 Scrutinizing Educational Performance 1
2 Performance-Based Accountability 11
3 The Evolution of Educational Accountability 26
4 Education Standards and Performance Accountability, 1970–2001 54
5 Educational Performance Accountability in Three States 81
6 Education Finance and Accountability in Massachusetts:
“The Grand Bargain” 91
7 Accountability and Equity in New Jersey: “Where Home Rule
Hasn’t Worked, the Legislature Must Do What Home Rule
Has Not Done” 116
8 Incrementalism and Local Control in Connecticut: “I’m Not Out
Looking for Your Keys” 139
9 Assessing Performance Accountability in Education 165
10 Lessons for Performance Measurement Research and Practice 180
References 189
Index 205
vii
List of Illustrations
Figures
4.1 Ultimate State-Level Sanctions for Schools and Districts 72
9.1 Challenges to Performance Accountability in Education Policy 173
10.1 General Implications for Public Administration 186
Tables
2.1 Romzek and Dubnick’s Accountability Typology 13
3.1 Educational Accountability in the Common-School Era 33
3.2 Educational Accountability and Administrative Progressivism 42
3.3 Educational Accountability in the Era of Inclusion and Conflict 49
3.4 Evolving Ideas about Equity, Intergovernmental Relations,
and Accountability 51
4.1 Educational Accountability in Standards-Based Reform 77
4.2 Equity, Intergovernmental Relations, and Performance
Accountability in Standards-Based Reform 79
5.1 Variation in State Accountability Policies 83
5.2 Legislation and Proposals Included in Case Studies 84
6.1 Changing Conceptions of Equity and State–Local Relations in
Massachusetts 112
6.2 Changing Educational Accountability in Massachusetts 113
7.1 Changing Conceptions of Equity and State–Local Relations in
New Jersey 136
7.2 Changing Educational Accountability in New Jersey 137
8.1 Changing Conceptions of Equity and State–Local Relations in
Connecticut 161
8.2 Changing Educational Accountability in Connecticut 162
10.1 Intensified Political Accountability 184
viii
Acknowledgments
This book and my third-grade son are approximately the same age, since
James was born shortly after I sent my research proposal and application
materials to the Advanced Studies Fellowship Program at Brown University.
The program’s faculty and staff and the group of fellows all helped shape
this project and provided a wonderful source of moral support. Thanks to
Marguerite Clarke, Elizabeth DeBray, Kim Freeman, David Gamson, Nora
Gordon, Chris Lubienski, Adam Nelson, Doug Reed, Beth Rose, John M odell,
and Wendy Schiller, and especially to Mimi Coughlin, Alyssa Lodewick,
and Carl Kaestle for bringing us all together. Beth Rose and two anonymous
reviewers for Georgetown University Press deserve special thanks for reading
and commenting on a draft of the entire manuscript, a task whose difficulty I
appreciated only after I reread it myself. Peg Goertz, Craig Thomas, and my
father, John McDermott, read parts of the manuscript. [Patrick McGuinn
helped me get up to date in New Jersey.] I particularly appreciate Dad’s willing-
ness to write marginal comments like “huh?” where they were most needed.
Beryl Radin has been a wonderful editor, generous with both encouragement
and constructive criticism, and patient when other commitments kept me
from writing as fast as we both wanted me to. Thanks also to Don Jacobs at
Georgetown University Press for bearing with me through several changes of
deadline.
My colleagues and students in both the School of Education and the
Center for Public Policy and Administration have been a constant source of
intellectual stimulation and friendship. Discussions with students in various
sections of “Education and Public Policy” and “Theories of Educational
Equity” sharpened my thinking in ways that improved this book. Staff mem-
bers at the University of Massachusetts’ W. E. B. DuBois Library, the Massa-
chusetts State Library, the Suffolk University Law Library, the New England
School of Law Library, and numerous other states’ libraries and education
departments assisted in tracking down documents and locating enactment
dates and texts of policies. Karen Addesso, Bernice Clark, Mike Hamel,
ix