The author cites several definitions of "accountability" in education, looks at some state accountability legislation and lawsuits, and considers the meaning of and obstacles to educational accountability. Discussing such topics as who is accountable for success and who controls the curriculum, he concludes that legislating accountability in…

Although two economic methods, cost effectiveness and benefit-cost analysis, are frequently mentioned as useful tools for educational decision making, only one, cost effectiveness, has potential for making a contribution to this field. A benefit-cost analysis tries for each alternative to measure benefits and costs, which are then discounted to…

The goals of this project are to assist schools in developing community ranked educational goals, to assess needs (i.e., to determine how well community ranked educational goals are being met), and to determine who among a number of groups are responsible for carrying out the goals as viewed from the local schools level. The concept of shared…

It is possible to remain faithful to the general intentions of management by objectives (MBO) while boiling it down to four major points. First, MBO places the emphasis on results rather than on resources or the ways in which resources are utilized. Second, responsibility for achieving these results is shared jointly by the superior and his…

The work presented in this monograph is the author's own attempt to piece together a representative review of the literature on educational accountability; this attempt admittedly overlooks many works, does not always offer "the best" works (simply representative ones), and is patterned after the author's own observations of what is…

Six papers from a Phi Delta Kappa symposium on educational accountability begin with an examination of accountability both as a goal and a process for achieving a goal, particularly from the state education agency perspective. The second paper, prepared from the vantage point of the teacher, asks questions about the development of accountability…

This booklet is one of a series of reports addressing the most critical issues confronting state boards of education throughout the United States. Each report attempts to present a concise, informative review and analysis of the best and most current information available on one of these critical topics. This booklet focuses on issues related to…

By law the Mississippi Commission on School Accreditation has the primary responsibility for assuring the quality of elementary and secondary education programs in the state. The Commission finds its role as one of validation and process evaluation according to established procedures. Recently, the state legislature mandated the establishment of…

This book was designed to help citizens evaluate and improve their local schools. It contends that the solution to the potential end of America's progress is through positive school reform--the public management of schools. It presents a system of participative and results-oriented management that is implemented by boards, administrators, and…

This document is concerned with the ways in which the planning done by universities, singly or together, interacts and might better interact with the planning done by governments or their agencies. This document attempts to focus attention on process as a prior condition to planning that leads to efficient action. The first chapter summarizes the…

Argues that the "new managerialism" approach to educational management in Scotland, with its emphasis on performance monitoring, diverts attention away from the core concerns of educational delivery and incurs significant bureaucratic costs. An alternative model, which is based on collegiality and democracy, focuses on professionalism,…

In Section 1, this report, a third revision, describes and discusses the accountability legislation enacted in the United States from 1963 through 1974. Tables and graphs reveal which States have enacted accountability legislation and indicate how many States have enacted legislation in five accountability related categories: State…

This document reports on the efforts of the South Carolina State Department of Education to develop a comprehensive educational planning capability. An assessment model and a dynamic model were developed to help in the identification of educational needs and in the evaluation of public education in the State. The assessment model relates…