Larry Lashway
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Larry Lashway THETHENEWNEW StandardsStandardsANDAND AccountabilityAccountability Will Rewards and Sanctions Motivate America’s Schools to Peak Performance? ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management College of Education • University of Oregon THENew Standards AND Accountability Will Rewards and Sanctions Motivate America’s Schools to Peak Performance? by Larry Lashway ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management College of Education University of Oregon 2001 The New Standards and Accountability: Will Rewards and Sanctions Motivate America’s Schools to Peak Performance? Editorial Director: Stuart C. Smith Graphic Designer: Leeann August ___________________________________________________________________ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lashway, Larry. The new standards and accountability : will rewards and sanctions motivate America’s schools to peak performance? / by Larry Lashway. — 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-86552-149-2 1. Educational accountability—United States. 2. Education— Standards—United States. 3. Motivation (Psychology) I. Title. LB2806.22.L37 2001 379.1’58’0973—dc21 2001033182 ___________________________________________________________________ Type: 11/13 Palatino Printer: McNaughton & Gunn, Inc., Saline, Michigan FIRST EDITION Printed in the United States of America, 2001 ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management 5207 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-5207 Telephone: (541) 346-5044 Fax: (541) 346-2334 World Wide Web: http://eric.uoregon.edu ERIC/CEM Accession Number: EA 030 821 This publication was prepared in part with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. ED-99-C0-0011. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the Department of Education. No federal funds were used in the printing of this publication. The University of Oregon is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution committed to cultural diversity. ii MISSION OF ERIC AND THE CLEARINGHOUSE The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a national information system operated by the U.S. Department of Education. ERIC serves the educational community by disseminating research results and other resource information that can be used in developing more effective educational programs. The ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management, one of several such units in the system, was established at the University of Oregon in 1966. The Clearinghouse and its companion units process research reports and journal articles for announcement in ERIC’s index and abstract bulletins. Research reports are announced in Resources in Education (RIE), available in many libraries and by subscription from the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402-9371. Most of the documents listed in RIE can be purchased through the ERIC Document Reproduction Service, operated by Cincinnati Bell Information Systems. Journal articles are announced in Current Index to Journals in Education. CIJE is also available in many libraries and can be ordered from Oryx Press, 4041 North Central Avenue at Indian School, Suite 700, Phoenix, Arizona 85012. Semiannual cumulations can be ordered separately. Besides processing documents and journal articles, the Clearinghouse prepares bibliographies, literature reviews, monographs, and other interpretive research studies on topics in its educational area. ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF Philip K. Piele, Professor and Director Stuart C. Smith, Associate Director CLEARINGHOUSE NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD George Babigian, Executive Director, American Education Finance As- sociation Anne L. Bryant, Executive Director, National School Boards Association Vincent L. Ferrandino, National Association of Elementary School Principals Paul Houston, Executive Director, American Association of School Administrators Karen R. Seashore, Vice President, Division A, American Educational Re- search Association Gerald Tirozzi, Executive Director, National Association of Secondary School Principals Michelle Young, Executive Director, University Council for Educational Administration iii Preface hen Stuart Smith at the ERIC Clearinghouse on Edu- Wcational Management offered me the opportunity to write a monograph on accountability, I accepted without hesitation. The topic was both timely and substantive. Moreover, as a teacher and administrator myself, I have a strong professional interest in the issue. Most of the time, I have reason- able confidence that I’m earning my salary, but if someone asked me to prove it, I’m not sure I could come up with a convincing answer. In a profession devoted to the long-term growth of hearts and minds, what could count as measurable results? In retrospect, a little hesitation would have been in order. Ac- countability has become the 800-pound gorilla of school reform, and it casts its shadow on just about every policy debate in education. Every time I read a book or article, I seemed to find a new dimen- sion to the issue, and my research would merrily head off in an entirely different direction. Fortunately, early in the process I discovered the South- ern Educational Research Board’s monograph on account- ability, with its five-part analysis of standards, assessment, public reporting, incentives, and professional development. That struck me as a logical structure, and it allowed me to keep the project manageable and reasonably coherent. As always, my intent throughout the process has been to provide a concise overview of the issue for school leaders, teachers, policymakers, and whomever else might have a pro- fessional interest in the topic. While that audience is always looking for practical, go-right-out-and-try-it solutions, in this case they may have to settle for a better understanding of the issues. The accountability literature is still short on recipes. At best, a diligent searcher can find clues, but those clues will be useful only with reflection, sensitivity, and no small amount v vi Preface of courage. My hope is that conceptual clarity will at least provide a starting point for the leaders who have to guide their schools through the accountability maze. I do, however, urge readers to exercise caution in the con- clusions they draw. First, although I have rather loosely used the term research literature to describe the sources for this work, most of what is out there is not the kind of rigorous experi- mentation we associate with that term. Certainly, there is noth- ing in the research that shows that accountability works—or doesn’t work. It is simply too early for that kind of conclu- sion. Instead, most writings on accountability range from thoughtful analysis to ardent advocacy. The best are very, very good, but still subject to further debate. Second, whatever their source, the ideas presented in this book have gone through the same filter: me. While I try to maintain reasonable objectivity and openness, my efforts to synthesize such a large body of work are bound to have bi- ases and blind spots. For that reason, when readers encounter an idea they want to pursue, I encourage them to use it just as a starting point, not as the definitive word. The nature of this kind of research has changed since I did my first ERIC/CEM monograph several years ago. The range and richness of Internet-based resources grows steadily, and like many other researchers, I have been gratified by the qual- ity and the convenience of those materials. However, we have not yet reached the point where libraries are dispensable, and I continue to be blessed with an abundance of good ones: the Washington State Library, the Olympia Timberland Library, and the libraries of The Evergreen State College and Pacific Lutheran University. As always, I’m grateful to the Clearinghouse for offering me the professional challenge of undertaking this work, and especially to Stuart, who was supremely supportive through- out a lengthy process that began in one millennium and ended in another. Stu’s ability to see past the ever-slipping deadlines to the finished product played no small part in keeping me on track. Larry Lashway Contents Preface ......................................................................................................... v Chapter 1: The Accountability Challenge ...........................................1 The Many Faces of Accountability ..................................................3 Finding a Coherent System ...............................................................7 Unanswered Questions .....................................................................14 Managing the Accountability Challenge .......................................20 Chapter 2: Understanding Human Motivation .................................23 Motivating from the Inside, Motivating from the Outside ............................................................................ 25 Three Views of Motivation ............................................................... 31 Motivating Teachers .......................................................................... 43 Chapter 3: Educational Standards ........................................................ 47 Types of Standards ........................................................................... 49 Standards and the Culture of Teaching ........................................ 57 Implications for Practitioners .......................................................... 62 Standards and Motivation