A Community-Based Model of Accountability

Currently, 16 U.S. states are implementing public school rating systems that assign letter grades to schools and districts.  John Tanner, executive director of Test Sense and author of The Pitfalls of Reform, has studied these rating systems and concludes that A-F school rating systems fail as an indicator of school quality.  He believes that a community-based model of accountability is more meaningful because it empowers school district leaders to engage their local communities in designing their own internal systems of assessment and accountability while still meeting general state standards.  In Texas, school districts are beginning to adopt community-based accountability systems.  Here is a link to what some of those systems look like.