Andy Rotherham's latest* U.S. News column argues that transparency is not enough in most policy spheres, including education. Accountability is needed, too.
The Bush administration assumed the federal No Child Left Behind law would produce a tidal wave of student and school performance data that would swamp opposition to school improvement efforts. Seven years later the political resistance to education reform is as potent as ever and former Bush aides now acknowledge placing too much faith in the power of information.
Hmm. Don't you think that "political resistance" might have resulted from NCLB's heavy-handed, clumsy attempt at top-down accountability? Every fierce opponent of NCLB prefaces his or her statement with, "Now, I think it's great that the law requires student test scores to be disaggregated..."
But more importantly, Andy is learning the wrong lesson. He's right that accountability is needed in education--in other words, outcomes must lead to consequences for adults--but it's not at all clear that this sort of accountability is workable when coming from Washington. The feds are simply too many steps removed from the action.
Andy later laments that "it's ridiculous that today a parent can find more information about choosing a new washing machine or automobile than about choosing a school." Which tells me that we still don't have a transparent education system, despite the "tidal wave" of NCLB data. Making solid, believable information available to parents and the public--via common national standards and tests, for example--is a worthwhile goal for a national agenda. But as for "holding schools and educators accountable" for said results, that's a task better left to the states.
UPDATE: Actually, not his latest; this one's from May! Oops, saw it on Eduwonk today. Still, some debates are timeless...
-Mike Petrilli
