Accountability, Assessment, and Teacher Commitment

Betty Lou Whitford is Professor of Education and Director of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the coauthor, with Gordon Ruscoe and Letitia Fickel, of Knitting It All Together: Collaborative Teacher Education in Southern Maine. Ken Jones is Mathematics Specialist at Gheens Academy/Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville.

"A rich examination of the impact of restructuring policy on the day-to-day lives of teachers and students in schools, this book deepens the understanding of the complexity of reform—especially the role of assessment and the desire for accountability—in a manner that is respectful of public goals and insightful about educational practice." — Gretchen Guiton, University of Southern California"…very compelling reading about Kentucky's failure to realize the vision of reform it set out to achieve. I was immediately hooked and fascinated to learn about the hopes of these educators, the distortions that ensued from the high-stakes consequences, and the personal stories that make these issues come alive." — Elizabeth Larkin, University of South Florida

• List of Figures List of Tables ForewordPatricia A. Wasley Acknowledgments IntroductionBetty Lou Whitford and Ken JonesPart I. Overview 1. Kentucky Lesson: How High Stakes School Accountability Undermines a Performance-Based Curriculum VisionBetty Lou Whitford and Ken JonesPart II. Inside Schools and Classrooms 2. Constructs from the Classroom: A Perspective on ReformTerry I. Brooks 3. A Multi-Age/Mult-Ability Primary Classroom in ActionChristy D. McGee 4. "The More Mathematics You Know, the Better Your Life Is Going to Be"Ken Jones and Betty Lou Whitford 5. Teacher Community and Commitment: A Case Study of a High School Social Studies DepartmentLetitia Hochstrasser Fickel 6. The Tortuous Journey toward School Reform: A Middle School's Efforts within the Context of a State-Mandated, High-Stakes Accountability SystemJan Calvert, Donna Gaus, and Gordon Ruscoe 7. Teacher Responses to Rewards and Sactions: Effects of and Reactions to Kentucky's High-Stakes Accountability ProgramPatricia J. Kannapel, Pamelia Coe, Lola Aagaard, Beverly D. Moore, and Cynthia A. Reeves Part III. Alternative Approaches to Accountability 8. A Teacher Appraisal Invention Process: Developing Commitment to AccountabilityLinda Shelor 9. The View from Maine: Developing Learner-Centered Accountability in a Local Control StateDavid Ruf, Debra Smith, and Lynne Miller 10. A New Look at School AccountabilityAnne WheelockPart IV. Reactions 11. State and School Level Accountability DilemmasJon Snyder 12. Success Needs Time to GrowA. Richardson Love Jr. 13.The Need to Broaden Accountability in Order to Foster LeadershipMarilyn Hohmann 14. Reaching All Students: The Real Challenge of ReformDick CorbettPart V. Summary and Conclusions 15. The Next Generation of School AccountabilityKen Jones and Betty Lou Whitford About the Authors Name Index Subject Index