EdSource
February 2007
This report provides a concise overview of California's recent experiences with state and federal accountability systems. The Golden State's story (at least as recounted here) begins with the Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999, which installed a standardized testing system whose scores would be translated into an Academic Performance Index (API). Schools would then be ranked from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest) according to their students' API scores. Since that time, two accountability frameworks have accompanied the testing regime: the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program, and the High Priority Schools Grant Program. A state-sponsored study by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) found that, while API scores have improved substantially, the accountability regimes account for few of those gains. Among other things, AIR blamed implementation failures on lack of district support and the disconnect between the planning and implementation of schools' "action plans." The report also highlights friction between the state's accountability system and that conjured by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act. Like many states, what counts as progress in California doesn't count for "adequate yearly progress" under NCLB. California's response to NCLB's cascade of sanctions tells another common tale: 76 percent of chronically-failing California schools avoided a serious overhaul by choosing the "other major restructuring" option, i.e. the "loophole option," while only 2 percent reopened as charters (13 percent did nothing). The report closes with an overview of California's latest accountability legislation, the Quality Education Investment Act, which provides more funding and stricter oversight for the lowest schools on the API pole. By the very nature of its topic, this paper is dry as toast. But the dogged reader will find useful glimpses of how a muddle of micromanaged accountability systems affects the districts, schools, and students over whose shoulder it operates. The report is available to purchase for $6, here.
