A core premise of state school report cards is that publicizing information about how well schools and districts meet specified goals will incentivize school improvement. However, for report card rating systems to be potentially beneficial as a school improvement policy instrument, they must provide fair and valid indicators of school performance.

The U.S. test-based accountability model holds schools and teachers accountable for student outcomes with little attention to school improvement processes. Many other countries enact more school-centered accountability efforts, such as school self-evaluation followed by inspection (SSE/I) to examine school quality, as in similar systems in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Netherlands. Accountability models from other countries cannot be naively...

A presentation 4/11/91 on school accountability and district goals; sessions chaired by Susan Schafer.

Advocates for increased privatization of public schools have long contended that private schools could provide equal or better outcomes at lesser costs. To bolster that argument, this EdChoice report asserts that voucher and voucher-like (tax credit scholarship and education savings account) programs have saved state and local treasuries some $12.4 to $28.3 billion dollars as student "switchers" use those programs to leave public schools and enter...