Educational Governance & Accountability: Taking the Next Step

Publication Date: May 2008

Publisher: Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy

Author(s):

Research Area: Education; Government

Keywords: K-12 education; education governance; education accountability

Type: Report

Coverage: California

Abstract:

In two years, fewer than half of the schools in California are likely to meet the ever-increasing performance requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. By 2014, none will. California needs to start planning now for that reality.

For too long, the state, its schools and its students have struggled under two different accountability systems – one created by California in 1999, the other introduced by the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The two systems do not work well with each other. Both do more
to identify poor performers than to help them. State policy-makers and educators have resisted the federal system, hoping it will fade away. The federal system, however, identifies students who could be left behind under the state system, an essential element, if the state is to move all of its students to the proficiency levels required to participate in California’s world-class economy. The experience of the past decade has shown that parents want accountability and schools, students
and the state need it.