Source Form #19

Title:  The Accountability Illusion

http://edexcellence.net/index.cfm/news_the-accountability-illusion

 

Summary:  The Thomas B. Fordham Institute provides the findings of their study on 36 real schools and determined which of the selected schools would not make AYP when evaluated under every state’s differing rules and regulations.

 

Topic: http://msaraceno.wordpress.com/question/

 

Category: This is an academic research source. This also contains two graphs for a good comparison of AYP.

 

What is it? This is the result of a study conducted by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute published on its website.

 

Publication Information:  This research document is on the Thomas B. Fordham Institute website.  Published on February 19, 2009. 

 

Author:  Chester E. Finn, Jr., Mechael J. Petrilli, and Amber M. Winkler.  No specifics of their background are listed in the report.

 

Location: http://edexcellence.net/index.cfm/news_the-accountability-illusion

Published February 19, 2009

 

Accessed: February 22, 2009

 

Support: McGlaughlin, Bandiera De Mellow. This source is used as a reference to state proficiency of cut scores—in regards to another study done on such information.

 

Chudowsky and Chudowsky.  This source is used as a reference to other studies that found differences in improvement trajectories through various states.

 

Fulton.  This source is used to show how states apply confidence intervals to their proficiency scores causing sampling errors.

 

The sources in this article are mainly other studies providing a more full circle effect of the information provided.  As gathering this information is a painstakingly long process, the researcher’s use of other sources helps guide the process of accountability to their own information gathered.  Since this is an academic, research-based article, information is usually a contribution to a bigger picture that other studies have contributed to as well.  The research provides ample amounts of studies to back up the findings in this particular study, which is important to its integrity.

 

Audience and Agenda:  The funding for this institution of research is a plethora of foundations.  A few of them are The Steven B. Achelis Foundation, The Lynde and Harry Bradely Foundation, and The Broad Foundation.  The agenda seems to be providing research that will better the quality of education to students in K-12 at a school of their own choice. They provide engaging and solid research and analysis.  The audience is people involved in the education system on any level.  The research provides informative findings regarding how things are going to need to progress in order to improve the Title I structure.  The article is also very useful to the Obama Administration as it is currently being used to analyze decisions about what to do next.

 

Usefulness:  The information in this report is useful in determining a well-researched flaw in the NCLB Act.  Specifically, this report speaks to the issue of school accountability rules and the diverse state-to-state problems that arise when left to a non-united structure.  The report has been viewed by Arne Duncan and commented on by him, which gives a great deal of relevance to the importance of the information within this research report.  The ideas within this article give an ample set of words for providing structure to defining the problem with the NCLB Act, which are, “The Accountability Illusion.”  Such a term will be one I hang onto as I dive deeper and deeper into my topic.  This is important because the main problem with the funding stems from the accountability spectrum, which is how information is provided to the federal level.  Because the information is faulty the integrity of the system as whole is compromised.  The article directly calls out for a more involved government in order to fix the current issues facing education on the level of disadvantaged students as a whole.  Although the article is lengthy, as a whole it produces some serious validity through-and-through as it unfolds the scene to come in the future as the government restructures and fixes the problems of the NCLB Act.  This research also contains two really good graphs for a comparison of AYP figures and how they change in every state.  The graphs will be useful in showing people visually how different things are in every states assessment figures.

 

Works Cited: http://www.edexcellence.net/flypaper/index.php/tag/the-accountability-illusion/

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