An Age of Accountability

How Standardized Testing Came to Dominate American Schools and Compromise Education

By John L. Rury

SERIES: New Directions in the History of Education

Rutgers University Press

An Age of Accountability highlights the role of test-based accountability as a policy framework in American education from 1970 to 2020. For more than half a century, the quest to hold schools and educators accountable for academic achievement has relied almost exclusively on standardized assessment. The theory of change embedded in almost all test-based accountability programs held that assessment with stipulated consequences could lead to major improvements in schools. This was accomplished politically by proclaiming lofty goals of attaining universal proficiency and closing achievement gaps, which repeatedly failed to materialize. But even after very clear disappointments, no other policy framework has emerged to challenge its hegemony. The American public today has little confidence in institutions to improve the quality of goods and services they provide, especially in the public sector. As a consequence, many Americans continue to believe that accountability remains a vital necessity, even if educators and policy scholars disagree.

In chronicling a half-century of accountability and standardized testing, John Rury shines a bright and balanced light on the continuing tensions between political aspirations and the realities of U.S. schools and students. This book is recommended reading for all who have asked: 'How did accountability policies come to dominate American education, and why have they persisted for so long?' Lorraine McDonnell, author of Politics, Persuasion, and Educational Testing

No other policy has shaped U.S. education in recent decades as much as test-based accountability. Rury provides a thorough and insightful discussion of the evolution of testing and accountability policies, the controversies surrounding them, and their disappointing effects. Daniel Koretz, author of Measuring Up: What Educational Testing Really Tells Us

This book is an essential, thorough, and objective study of standardized testing as used in American schools over the past 50 years. It is another impressive contribution from John Rury. Maris Vinovskis, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

JOHN L. RURY is a professor emeritus of education at the University of Kansas. He is the author of many publications, including Creating the Suburban School Advantage: Race, Localism and Inequality in an American Metropolis.

Abbreviations

Introduction: School Accountability and Standardized
Testing in American History

1 The Origins of Test-Based Accountability: Assessing
Minimum Competencies in the 1970s

2 Standardized Testing and Race: Continuity and Change,
1975–2000

3 A Time of Transition: Testing Takes a Back Seat in
the 1980s

4 New Standards and Tests: Accountability on the
National Stage

5 A Millennium Dawns: The Origins and Impact
of NCLB

Conclusion: A Troubled History and Prospects
for Change

Appendix: Oral History Sources
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

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