Test-based accountability: The best we can do?

Who doesn't want accountability in education? That was the selling point for No Child Left Behind (NCLB). It was the selling point for the Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) of 1993. It was even a selling point for Finnish reforms in teacher education in 1970. But how did Congress and most of our education researchers and policy makers get frozen into thinking that test-based accountability is the only kind of accountability?

Who doesn't want accountability in education? That was the selling point for No Child Left Behind (NCLB). It was the selling point for the Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) of 1993. It was even a selling point for Finnish reforms in teacher education in 1970. But how did Congress and most of our education researchers and policy makers get frozen into thinking that test-based accountability is the only kind of accountability?…