Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right By: Richard Rothstein, Rebecca Jacobson, and Tamara Wilder  Email this product to a friend

book, 277 pages, 6" x 9" (paper), 2008

ISBN:807749395

We should hold public schools accountable for effectively spending the vast funds with which they have been entrusted. But accountability policies like No Child Left Behind, based exclusively on math and reading test scores, have narrowed the curriculum, misidentified both failing and successful schools, and established irresponsible expectations for what schools can accomplish. Instead of just grading progress in one or two narrow subjects, we should hold schools accountable for the broad outcomes we expect from public education – basic knowledge and skills, critical thinking, an appreciation of the arts, physical and emotional health, and preparation for skilled employment – and then develop the means to measure, and ensure, schools’ success in achieving them. Grading Education describes a new kind of accountability plan for public education. It relies upon both higher-quality testing and professional evaluation. This new accountability plan is practical and builds on capacities we already possess. It requires a big commitment, but one necessary if we are to fulfill our responsibilities to provide for our youth and the nation’s future. (Joint publication of Teachers College Press and EPI.)