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Centralized accountability frameworks attach relatively severe consequences to schools (such as school sanctions) and to teachers (like salary limitations) that are unable to meet student achievement targets (Klinger et. al. 2011)
Challenges with accountability framework

Various assumptions

“The foundation upon which such accountability framework are based, educators’ ability to identify systematic learning needs and select appropriate instructional practices to address these needs, and the assessment information used to determine learning needs and measure the effectiveness of educators’ efforts” (Klinger et. al. 2011)

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The Fraser Institute of Vancouver devised a statistical regime that changed how schools were perceived by the public through developing an annual school “report card’ that highlighted and concealed differences between schools

Public school rankings provided parents with an instrument that distinguished high-ranking “good” schools from low ranking “bad” ones.

This makes the standardized assessment practices “high-stakes” because they can be used to create a marketplace for privatization and school choice where there had not been one previously

For many people, it is through school rankings that they come to know, evaluate and recognize what ‘good’ schools are according to a particular epistemology of seeing - an epistemology created by the Fraser Institute

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The following as been put in place in B.C. Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Ontario have similarities:

“Working to improve students’ educational results”

Setting targets

Ways to measure success

“Identifying areas that need improvement” (Klinger et. al. 2011)

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3) SEF = Facilitate School Effectiveness

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3) SEF = Facilitate School Effectiveness

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9 methods to facilitate school effectiveness:

Build school capacity

Foster introspection, reflection, and analysis

Improve planning

Collaborative and collegial conversations

High-yield, research-based strategies

Monitoring and feedback strategies

Unique improvement needs

Communicate, celebrate and build confidence

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Mainly a lack of research and evidence

“Foundations of the SEF have yet to be fully explored as operational mechanisms that actually improve teaching and learning”.

“A second body of research influencing the SEF is a set of policy concepts that are being heavily promoted in the professional community”.

Operational challenges - again issues with evidence

“Underlying assumptions upon which these models are built”.

Assumptions that teachers and administrators ‘have the information and skills to make effective decisions that will lead to improved student outcomes”

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5) Personal SEF / Accountability Applications

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5) Personal SEF / Accountability Applications

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Despite the accountability efforts found across Canada, student's achievement levels have changed very little. We need to consider that students achievement is influenced in other ways such as student; work habits, family socioeconomic background, language, and ethnic and immigration history. How can we measure such social factors? Measurement is great but we need to be able to determine validity of statistical data. Lets examine further through Garner's article...

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Test scores in the modern world are usual understood to be indicators or strengths and weaknesses

Many educators believe that students should not be reduced to a number

Data such as test scores can be a valuable asset to a teacher, IF they know how to use them

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However, if a teacher has a conviction against testing, they should not give tests.

The aversion to numbers is not new to education.

The author links using statistics in unconventional ways like in the baseball movie “Moneyball”

Some of the aversion to tests and scores stems from the “failure” of the IQ test. Currently half the population is below average which seems depressing to most that our generation is statistically getting less intelligent.

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Numbers are also said to never lie - historically numbers were idolized as holy things that were unchangeable and measurable. Many still hold to this way of thinking today, including teachers.

Numbers and test scores can be manipulated

Stats can be mismanaged to fit one’s personal agenda (politics)

Stats can be left out to skew the overall message

These ideas have major implications and carry over into education and forming teachers philosophies on testing and grading.

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We all must agree that we need statistics

Without statistics, we limit our ability to think thoughtfully about our society; without statistics, we have no accurate ways of judging how big a problem may be, whether it is getting worse, or how well the policies designed to address that problem actually work. And Awestruck or Naïve attitudes towards statistics are no better than ignoring statistics; statistics have no magical properties, and it is foolish to assume that all statistics are equally valid.

We all must agree that we need tests

Reality is complicated, and every statistic is someone’s summary, a simplification of that complexity. Every statistic must be created and the process of creation always involves choices that affect the resulting number and therefore affect what we understand after the figures summarize and simplify the problem.

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Should we consider how tests are viewed by the general public and innumerate users as we (educators) form our own philosophies on grading and testing?

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School rankings impact morale, teacher effectiveness, selective admission procedures and the erosion of professionalism in an educational system that values standardized testing and market driven reforms.
(Simmonds & Webb 2013)

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The Fraser Institute of Vancouver devised a statistical regime that changed how schools were perceived by the public through developing an annual school “report card’ that highlighted and concealed differences between schools

Public school rankings provided parents with an instrument that distinguished high-ranking “good” schools from low ranking “bad” ones.

This makes the standardized assessment practices “high-stakes” because they can be used to create a marketplace for privatization and school choice where there had not been one previously

For many people, it is through school rankings that they come to know, evaluate and recognize what ‘good’ schools are according to a particular epistemology of seeing - an epistemology created by the Fraser Institute

(Simmonds & Webb 2013)

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Apple (2004) identifies four distinct groups that emerged as 21st century forces that he feels profoundly shape the educational policy landscape: neoliberals, neoconcervatives, authoritarian populists (fundamentalists), and “experts for hire”.

Neoliberals (like Fraser Institute):economic modernizers who want educational policy to be centered around the economy and around performance objectives. They see schools as needing to be transformed and made more competitive

Neoconservatives (Like BC ministry of education) are deeply committed to establishing tighter mechanisms of control over knowledge through national or state curriculum and testing.

(Simmonds & Webb 2013)

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Media continuously portrayed private/independent schools as “top rated” schools leading to public to believe it was better than public schools.
I know from personal experience that our school's open house draws many families that reference the Fraser Report as pull factor in choosing our independent school in Calgary.