Joseph F. Johnson

Accountability for Equity: Can State Policy Leverage Social Justice?.

This paper advocates working carefully through a tactical, practical engagement with accountability policies for the purpose of increasing educational equity and social justice for children of colour and children from low-income families. It discusses the pervasiveness of systemic racism and its effects in US schools, and explores the complexity surrounding issues of accountability and the possible disruption of this racism. Also described is the possibility of a convergence of interests between supporters of accountability and advocates for social justice. Finally, evidence is presented, from state and school district levels in Texas, that increased educational equity can be leveraged through the careful use of some accountability measures.

Can State Accountability Systems Drive Improvements in School Performance for Children of Color and Children from Low-Income Homes?

States and school districts throughout the nation have developed or are developing accountability systems to spur improvement in student achievement. Researchers, policy makers, and practitioners have both praised and criticized accountability systems, particularly concerning their impact on children of color and children from low-income homes. Do accountability systems harm the education of children of color and children from low-income homes, or do these systems drive educational improvements for these students? Few state accountability systems have been in place long enough to help answer this question; however, the Texas public school accountability system has been in place for several years, providing a useful case for analyzing the impact of accountability systems on student achievement. Additionally, Texas is a useful case for study because of the wealth of disaggregated student achievement data available through the state education agency. If the accountability system in Texas were driving improvements in student performance (particularly for children of color and children from low-income homes), one would expect to see substantial increases in student achievement over time on multiple measures of student performance, including the states Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). One would expect to see increases for children of color and children who meet low-income criteria. Furthermore, one would expect to see those increases result in a narrowing of the achievement gap when their performance is compared with that of White students and students with typical family incomes. One would expect the improvements to be a fair reflection of the performance of all students without the omission or exclusion of significant populations of students. Furthermore, one would hope that the results would represent real improvements in student achievement, as opposed to artificial indicators of success. Finally, if the accountability system were to be considered at lea

Complex and contested constructions of accountability and educational equity

We very much appreciate Walt Haney’s and Stephen Klein’s willingness to engage with us in dialogue about accountability and educational equity, clearly issues about which we all care deeply. Both of their responses to our article ‘Accountability for equity: can state policy leverage social justice’ (pp. 237–260) provide scholarly and substantive critique of our work and raise important questions. As we said in that piece, we strongly believe that careful consideration, from many viewpoints, of the intensely complex and often highly emotionally charged issues surrounding accountability policy and its equity effects is sorely needed. We also strongly believe that the implications of this discussion are critically important to the future of children of colour and children from low-income families. We are, thus, grateful to Professors Haney and Klein for responding to our work, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to offer a rejoinder to their critiques. We do so in three major sections. First, we discuss areas of agreement, or shared constructions of meaning, between our views and those of our critics. Next, we discuss issues of disagreement, or contested constructions, between our views of accountability and educational equity and those of Haney and Klein. We end the article with a brief conclusions section.