![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
This article explores past and current education testing frameworks as a pretext for constructing a policy platform with the efficacy to transform systems and structures that hinder opportunities and resist equitable practices. The rise of accountability in education public policy has brought about intended and unintended outcomes. As prescribed, it has facilitated a significant measure of uniform clarity regarding standards of learning and mechanisms for measuring teacher and leadership impacts on student outcomes. However, perverse incentives, such as persistent or widening group outcome achievement disparities, demonstrate the need for policy work that extends beyond the identification of expected performance to address the execution of deliverables. More recently, scholars have suggested the need to move from a standards-based reform agenda to a supports-based reform agenda. The policy exploration in this study articulates the presence of an expectation gap—a disconnection between accountability expectations and support availability, identifying and analyzing the components necessary to transform a system of public education, which prioritizes accountability for results to one that also emphasizes the implementation of sound processes, which align the support structures and practices necessary to achieve results.
References
Section:
|
Andre-Bechely, L. N. (2005). Could it be otherwise? Parents and the inequities of public school choice. New York, NY: Routledge. Google Scholar | |
|
Balkin, J. M., Levinson, S. (2001). Understanding the constitutional revolution. Virginia Law Review, 87, 1045-1109. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Ball, S. J. (1994). Education reform: A critical and post-structural approach. Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Bell, D. (1980). Brown v. Board of Education and the interest-convergence dilemma. Harvard Law Review, 93, 518-534. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Bell, D. (1992). Racial realism. Connecticut Law Review, 24, 363-379. Google Scholar | |
|
Bourdieu, P., Passeron, J.-C. (1977). Reproduction in educating society and culture. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Google Scholar | |
|
Boykin, A. W., Noguera, P. (2011). Creating the opportunity to learn: Moving from research to close the achievement gap. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Google Scholar | |
|
Cameron, S. C., Wycoff, S. M. (1998). The destructive nature of the term “race”: Growing beyond a false paradigm. Journal of Counseling & Development, 76, 277-285. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., Menozzi, P., Piazza, A. (1994). The history and geography of human genes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Crain, R. L., Mahard, R. E. (1978). Desegregation and black achievement: A review of the research. Law and Contemporary Problems, 42(3), 17-56. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Crain, R. L., Mahard, R. E. (1982). Desegregation plans that raise black achievement: A review of the research (National Institute of Education). Santa Monica, CA: RAND. Google Scholar | |
|
Daniel, P. T. K., Walker, T. (2014). Fulfilling the promise of Brown: Examining laws and policies for remediation. The Journal of Negro Education, 83, 256-273. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Darling-Hammond, L. (2007). Race, inequality and educational accountability: The irony of “No Child Left Behind.” Race Ethnicity and Education, 10, 245-260. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Darling-Hammond, L. (2010). The flat world and education: How America’s commitment to equity will determine our future. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Delpit, L. (2006). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York, NY: W.W. Norton. Google Scholar | |
|
Dornbusch, S. M., Ritter, P. L., Steinberg, L. (1991). Community influences on the relation of family statuses to adolescent school performance: Differences between African Americans and non-Hispanic whites [Special issue: Development and education across adolescence]. American Journal of Education, 99, 543-567. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Gates, H. L. (1995). Why now? In Fraser, S. (Ed.), The bell curve wars: Race, intelligence, and the future of America (pp. 94-96). New York, NY: Basic Books. Google Scholar | |
|
Gillborn, D. (2005). Education policy as an act of white supremacy: Whiteness, critical race theory and education reform. Journal of Education Policy, 20, 485-505. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Gladwell, M. (2006). The tipping point. New York, NY: Little, Brown. Google Scholar | |
|
Gonzales, N. A., Cauce, A. M., Friedman, R. J., Mason, C. A. (1996). Family, peer, and neighborhood influences on academic achievement among African-American adolescents: One-year prospective effects. American Journal of Community Psychology, 24, 365-387. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Gossett, T. F. (1997). Race: The history of an idea in America. New York, NY: W.W. Norton. Google Scholar | |
|
Gould, S. J. (1996). The mismeasure of man. New York, NY: W.W. Norton. Google Scholar | |
|
Guisbond, L., Neill, M. (2004). Failing our children: No Child Left Behind undermines quality and equity in education. Clearing House, 78, 12-16. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Haney, W. (2000). The myth of the Texas miracle in education. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 8(41). Retrieved from http://eppa.asu.edu/eppa/w8n41 Google Scholar | |
|
Herrnstein, R. J., Murray, C. (1994). The bell curve: Intelligence and class structure in American life. New York, NY: The Free Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Hilliard, A. G. (1994). What good is this thing called intelligence and why bother to measure it? Journal of Black Psychology, 20, 430-444. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Hilliard, A. G. (1995). Either a paradigm shift or no mental measurement: The non-science and nonsense of the bell curve. Psych Discourse, 76(10), 6-20. Google Scholar | |
|
Hilliard, A. G. (2003). No mystery: Closing the achievement gap. In Perry, T., Steele, C., Hilliard, A. (Eds.), Young, gifted and black: Promoting high achievement among African-American students (pp. 131-165). Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Hiss, W., Franks, V. (2014). Defining promise: Optimal standardized testing policies in American college and University Admissions. Retrieved from http://www.nacacnet.org/research/research-data/nacac-research/Documents/DefiningPromise.pdf Google Scholar | |
|
Howard, J. H., Hammond, R. (1985). Rumors of inferiority: The hidden obstacles of black success. The New Republic, 193(5), 17-22. Google Scholar | |
|
Jean-Louis, B., Farrow, F., Schorr, L., Bell, J., Smith, K. F. (2010). Focusing on results in promise neighborhoods: Recommendations for the federal initiative. Harlem Children’s Zone, The Center for the Study of Social Policy. Retrieved from www.aecf.org/resources/focusing-on-results-in-promise-neighborhoods Google Scholar | |
|
Jencks, C. (1992). Rethinking social policy: Race, poverty, and the underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Johnson, T., Boyden, J. E., Pittz, W. J. (2001). Racial profiling and punishment in U.S. public schools: How zero tolerance policies and high stakes testing subvert academic excellence and racial equity. Oakland, CA: ERASE Initiative. Google Scholar | |
|
Jones, K. (2004). A balanced school accountability model: An alternative to high-stakes testing. Phi Delta Kappan, 85, 584-590. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Kozol, J. (2005). The shame of the nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Labaree, D. F. (1997). Public goods, private goods: The American struggle over educational goals. American Educational Research Journal, 34, 39-81. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in U.S. schools. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 3-12. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
|
Langana-Riordan, C., Aguilar, J. P. (2009). What’s missing from No Child Left Behind? A policy analysis from a social work perspective. Children & Schools, 31, 135-144. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Langer, E. J. (1989). Mindfulness. Cambridge, MA: De Capo Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Lewis, C. W., James, M., Hancock, S., Hill-Jackson, V. (2008). Framing African American students’ success and failure in urban settings: A typology for change. Urban Education, 43, 127-153. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Lipman, P., Haines, N. (2007). From accountability to privatization and African American exclusion: Chicago’s “Renaissance 2010.” Education Policy, 21, 471-502. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Marable, M. (1983). How capitalism underdeveloped black America: Problems in race, political economy and society. Boston, MA: South End Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Marable, M. (2007). Race, reform, and rebellion: The second reconstruction and beyond in black America, 1945-2006. Jackson: The University Press of Mississippi. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Marzano, R. J. (2000). A new era of school reform: Going where the research takes us. Aurora, CO: Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning. Available from http://www.mcrel.org Google Scholar | |
|
Marzano, R. J. (2003). What works in schools: Translating research into action. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Google Scholar | |
|
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, 20 U.S.C.A. § 6301 et seq. (West 2003). Google Scholar | |
|
Parrish, T. B., Matsumoto, C. S., Fowler, W. J. (1995). Disparities in public school district spending 1989-90: A multivariate, student-weighted analysis, adjusted for differences in geographic cost of living and student need. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. Google Scholar | |
|
Ravitch, D. (2010). The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education. New York, NY: Basic Books. Google Scholar | |
|
Reeves, D. (2003). High performance in high poverty schools: 90/90/90 and beyond. Center for Performance Assessment. Retrieved from http://jmathiesen.tie.wikispaces.net/file/view/high%2520performance%252090%252090%252090%2520and%2520beyond.pdf Google Scholar | |
|
Sampson, R. (2012). Great American city: Chicago and the enduring neighborhood effect. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Schott Foundation . (2009). National opportunity to learn campaign: Federal recommendations. Available from http://www.otlcampaign.org Google Scholar | |
|
Schott Foundation . (2015). Black lives matter: The Schott 50 state report on public education and black males. Available from http://blackboysreport.org Google Scholar | |
|
Sirin, S. R. (2005). Socio-economic status and academic achievement: A meta-analytic review of research. Review of Educational Research, 75, 417-453. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | ISI | |
|
Skrla, L., Scheurich, J. (2001). Displacing deficit thinking in school district leadership. Education and Urban Society, 37, 22-36. Google Scholar | |
|
Steele, C. M., Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797-811. Google Scholar | Crossref | Medline | ISI | |
|
Takaki, R. (1992). The tempest in the wilderness: The racialization of savagery. The Journal of American History, 79, 892-912. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Tough, P. (2008). Whatever it takes. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin. Google Scholar | |
|
Tough, P. (2012). How children succeed: Grit, curiosity, and the hidden power of character. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin. Google Scholar | |
|
Unnever, J. D., Kerckhoff, A. C., Robinson, T. J. (2000). District variations in educational resources and student outcomes. Economics of Education Review, 19, 245-259. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap. New York, NY: Basic Books. Google Scholar | |
|
Walker, T. A. (2012). Plessy strikes back or No Child Left Behind: A study of African American male marginalization and effects of proposed policy prescriptions for remedy (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The Ohio State University, Columbus. Google Scholar | |
|
Wilson, W. J. (1987). The hidden agenda. In Wilson, W. J. (Ed.), The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy (pp. 140-164). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Wilson, W. J. (1996). When work disappears: The world of the new urban poor. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. Google Scholar | Crossref |
Author Biography
T. Anthony Walker is a practitioner scholar living and working in Columbus, Ohio. Currently, he is the principal of Walnut Ridge, an urban high school in Columbus City Schools. He holds a PhD in education policy and leadership from the Ohio State University. He aspires to empower people to transform systems.
