By Sofie Schachter
UW–Madison’s Christopher Saldaña, an assistant professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, was part of a working group on educational accountability that presented during a briefing organized by Congressman Jamaal Bowman in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The briefing featured the expertise of those behind the report, “Educational Accountability 3.0: Beyond ESSA.” This work was a joint project between the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) and the Beyond Test Scores Project. The report outlines the current issues with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Members of the working group, including Saldaña, hope it will help inspire Congress members to take action on the reauthorization of the ESEA.
Saldaña’s research examines the relationship between K-12 school finance and educational opportunity, with a particular emphasis on the educational experiences of marginalized youth, families, and communities. He, among several other researchers, spoke at the congressional briefing.
“The approach of this report,” the authors write, “is not to tinker with the details of current federal law; instead, it outlines six principles that should be prioritized in pursuit of equity and effectiveness.”
These six principles include:
- Align assessment policy with goals for high-quality curricula and instruction.
- Develop a system with reciprocal accountability.
- Ensure that representative community members play a meaningful role in the system.
- Move toward a broader array of school quality indicators.
- Ensure interpretable and actionable results.
- Design a system that will evolve and improve.
They also name three flaws in the current ESEA system: the theory of change, lack of inclusion of stakeholders, and a top down approach.
“We hope that members of Congress will take up a now-overdue reauthorization of ESEA,” they write. “Ultimately, all of us are accountable for moving forward. Inaction is not preordained; it is a choice.”
According to the NEPC, the paper connects “roughly two dozen leading scholars, and sets forth a policy agenda for the next reauthorization of ESEA. At the same time — in light of the lengthy delay in reauthorization that is likely to occur — it considers how local and state leaders might leverage some of the underutilized flexibility available under ESSA.”
“The report reflects a diverse set of expertise and experiences that present the possibility of an educational accountability system that promotes, more than anything, a school system that supports students to flourish in their learning and life, as opposed to an accountability system that punishes students, families, schools, and districts for ostensibly ‘failing’ on a standardized test,” Saldaña said in an email.
“For decades now, educational accountability has been top-down, high-stakes, and narrowly focused on standardized testing,” he adds. “In this reauthorization, federal policymakers have an opportunity to fundamentally shift educational accountability and assessment in the United States.”