High-Stakes Reform ─ The Politics of Educational Accountability

McDermott (education and public policy, U. of Massachusetts, Amherst) examines the political processes and historical context, from the beginnings of local public schools to 2001, that led to the enactment of state-level US education accountability policies that focus on performance. She focuses on high school graduation tests and state powers to close schools or replace staff, or take control of districts, and compares the uses of testing in case studies of Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut and their kinds of sanctions against students, schools, and school districts with low test scores enacted prior to the No Child Left Behind Act, a period when much of the action on educational accountability took place. She also discusses performance-based accountability and its ideas and the implications of her analysis for education policy and the general movement toward performance measurement and accountability. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kathryn A. McDermott is an associate professor of education and public policy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.