Accountability: Responsibility and reasonable expectations

Linn, Robert L. (2003). Accountability: Responsibility and reasonable expectations. Educational Researcher, 32(7), 3-13.


In a solid way, the president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) unpacks the basic problems with No Child Left Behind (NCLB). He avoids political polemic for the most part and simply digs into problematic design issues in NCLB.

The most powerful point is that NCLB has set unrealistic goals. If no one has ever met the goal, it probably is unrealistic. Linn shows how even if a district or state makes greater improvement then it has demonstrated in the past, it still would take many more years to achieve than are left before 2014. And of course, states are naturally already looking for ways to crunch the numbers that will work to advantage, and at least "buy time" until, hopefully, the law is changed. (Implicit here is a hope for a change in national leadership, but Linn avoids saying that.)

Linn makes a few suggestions for improvement. I especially like the idea of rewarding improvement rates rather than set standards for everyone that have been "plucked out of the air and into the legislation" (p. 12). Too bad the current federal administration doesn't value university folks and so won't listen.