Local Accountability: The Vibrance of an Ecosystem

For the past thirty years, the school accountability ecosystem has remained relatively unchanged, albeit with some variations occurring every three to five years. Overall, the school accountability system has relied heavily on a single metric from a single day, primarily student standardized assessments. This single metric collected near the end of the school year predominantly defines a school, regardless of all the other positive developments that may be happening on the remaining days within the school. However, in 2023, school districts across Kentucky and the nation are at the forefront of efforts to change or adapt the accountability model, incorporating local accountability, which will fundamentally transform the accountability ecosystem moving forward.

When we consider an ecosystem within the realm of public education, our minds naturally gravitate towards the learning ecosystem. A learning ecosystem is a complex and interconnected environment in which learning occurs, encompassing a diverse array of components, technologies, resources, and interactions that support and enhance the learning process. In a learning ecosystem, learning is not restricted to a single institution or setting but takes place across various formal and informal contexts.

The question that arises is: what constitutes an ecosystem for a local accountability system? Given that local accountability is a relatively new concept for many school and district administrators, including educational researchers, psychometricians, and other educational practitioners, contemplating the idea of an ecosystem prompts one to pause and reflect. This reflection involves not only understanding what an ecosystem is but also grasping its significance, as well as the principles associated with creating an ecosystem for a local accountability model.

What is a Local School Accountability Ecosystem?

A local accountability ecosystem can be best described as a dynamic and student-centered framework that is intricately interconnected, comprising a network of actors, institutions, and mechanisms. This ecosystem is intentionally designed to foster and reestablish accountability within the local school or school district, placing a strong emphasis on locally crafted expectations and goals. In essence, it is a multifaceted system that empowers and engages students, local educators, parents, guardians, business leaders, and other community stakeholders working collaboratively to ensure that the educational experience aligns closely with the unique needs and aspirations of the local community.

In fact, the accountability ecosystem is deliberately designed to foster and spread local accountability throughout the school and school district community. It underscores the significance of reciprocal accountability within the school community, where shared decision-making, responsibility, and accountability are prominently emphasized throughout the school experience. By working collectively toward a shared vision of establishing exceptional learning environments, experiences, opportunities, outcomes, services, and supports for students, each stakeholder clearly understands the expectations, their responsibilities, and how accountability will be individually and collectively driven locally, ensuring continuous improvements in real-time to meet the evolving needs of students and the community expectations.

An effective local accountability ecosystem demands unwavering commitment from all stakeholders, ensuring that the student's experience, growth, and learning consistently guide the process with an unwavering commitment to real-time transparency. Unlike traditional accountability models, which are primarily driven by federal and state mandates, local accountability models remain firmly rooted in local community expectations. Additionally, local accountability models, driven by the needs of students, maintain a strong link between core and employability skills through an expectation of personalized learning that empowers students to demonstrate their readiness by applying and utilizing their skills, strengths, and talents.

The Principles of a Local Accountability Ecosystem

With a clear understanding of what constitutes an effective local school accountability ecosystem, it is equally vital to delve into the principles that support its successful operation. These principles serve as the cornerstone of a robust accountability system, ensuring that accountability processes are conducted with integrity, fairness, and a steadfast commitment to fostering exceptional learning environments, experiences, opportunities, outcomes, services, and supports for students, all aligned to the shared expectations of the school community. Each principle plays a critical role in shaping the effectiveness of the local accountability system.

Like beacons guiding the way, these principles illuminate the path forward, ensuring that accountability remains a powerful catalyst for continuous improvement, not a source of undue pressure. This transformation is not driven by arbitrary and generic federal or state mandates, but rather by the aspirations, interests, and needs of students, shaped by the shared expectations of the school community.

Clarity. The expectations for schools and school districts must be clear and communicated to all stakeholders. No matter whether the accountability system is traditional or local, all effective accountability systems are characterized by clear expectations and open communication. This means that all stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers, and administrators, have a shared understanding of what is expected of them and how their performance will be assessed.?

Fleming County Schools' local accountability model, the Measures of Quality, is a collaborative effort between the district, it’s schools, and stakeholders, including students, teachers, parents, guardians, business leaders, and community members. This model ensures that the district is meeting the needs of its students by measuring what is most important to them and their community, such as work-ready skills, soft skills, and core competencies in reading, math, and writing. Local accountability systems are designed and intended to be simple and understandable for all stakeholders. This is important because it allows everyone to be involved in the accountability process and to work together to create distinctive experiences, opportunities, outcomes, services, and support for all students.

Clarity is essential to the success of any local accountability system. Administrators consistently communicate the district's expectations to all stakeholders in terms that everyone can understand. This helps to ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals and that students are receiving the support they need to succeed. The Measures of Quality are a powerful tool for accountability and improvement in Fleming County Schools. By collaborating with stakeholders and focusing on what is most important to students, the district is able to create a distinctive education for all students.

Fairness. It is critical that local accountability models remain fair to all schools, irrespective of their location, demographics, or available resources. Local accountability models offer one of the most equitable forms of accountability in public education, a trend that has persisted since the emergence of school accountability in the early 1990s. While some might assume that different school districts hold varying expectations—some high and others low—local accountability challenges all districts to strive for the highest standards. With local accountability models, there are no federal or state components to hide behind or blame; the responsibility squarely rests on the school community.

Moreover, there are no arbitrary expectations imposed at the federal or state level. Local accountability expectations are collaboratively developed at the local level among all stakeholders, with the shared objective of providing every student with the best learning environments, experiences, opportunities, outcomes, services, and supports. No school, district, or community desires to fall short. Therefore, with local accountability, reciprocal responsibility for creating distinctive components within schools for all students is collaboratively shared. As research consistently validates, accountability at the local level is the only way to establish the capacity and sustainability of accountability for the long term; no federal or state accountability alone can transform a school or school district. Local stakeholders are the key to any form of accountability and continuous improvement. Embracing a localized approach to accountability has proven to be a more effective strategy, garnering widespread support, whereas federal and state accountability measures often foster a compliance-driven paradigm that contributes minimally to the advancement of student outcomes.

Balance. Accountability should encompass various factors, such as student achievement, student growth, and school climate. Traditional accountability models rely on single metrics from a single day, centered around standardized state tests—a trend that emerged in response to policymakers' reactions to A Nation at Risk (1983). Over the past thirty years, this overemphasis on standardized testing has become an annual fixture in public education. Each year, these tests cast broad strokes, either negatively or positively, on the quality of public education based solely on a few days at the end of the school year, disregarding all the other positive occurrences throughout the academic year.

Local accountability models hold promise for schools and school districts. Unlike traditional accountability models that rely heavily on summative standardized assessments, next-generation accountability models prefer more formative and shorter standardized assessments, primarily focused on growth measured three or four times throughout the school year. Moreover, the quality of learning in schools is not solely determined by assessments. Instead, a range of other components, rarely considered in traditional accountability models, such as readiness, learning personalization, logistics, operations, engagement, growth, leadership, and student and staff well-being, play crucial roles. Local accountability models, grounded in community expectations and goals, offer numerous avenues for school accountability, providing stakeholders with a more measured and balanced scorecard of the quality of learning environments, experiences, opportunities, outcomes, services, and supports.

Transparency. Transparency is a crucial aspect of the education system, and the information regarding school performance should be readily available to the public in real-time. As of 2023, various stakeholders, including parents, community members, business leaders, and policymakers, express their concerns regarding the lack of real-time transparency in traditional accountability models. These models consistently fall short in providing stakeholders with immediate insights into aspects ranging from student achievement and readiness to operational considerations. Stakeholders are increasingly demanding real-time transparency rather than relying on the annual release of dashboards or accountability report cards.

In the realm of local accountability, districts are better equipped to fulfill the demands of real-time transparency compared to state-based accountability models. Local educators, as well as school and district administrators, find themselves in a more advantageous position in relation to the data and the actual occurrences within schools, unlike federal and state staff. By working closely with their communities to identify expectations, schools and district administrators can then formulate a transparency process that is centered around specific community-based expectations. Subsequently, they can share data and other pertinent information in real-time, address questions, and develop specific improvement plans to target identified areas in need of enhancement.

This approach not only fosters a more immediate and dynamic understanding of school performance but also encourages a collaborative effort between educational institutions and their communities. The emphasis on real-time transparency allows for a more responsive and adaptive approach to addressing challenges and improving overall educational outcomes. Ultimately, this shift towards local accountability ensures that the educational system remains closely aligned with the unique needs and expectations of the communities it serves.

Engagement. Ensuring the active participation of stakeholders, including students, is paramount in the accountability processes. In particular, the evolution towards next-generation accountability models places a strong emphasis on measuring aspects that are most significant to students. These innovative models aim to integrate students into the evaluation of various elements crucial to their educational experiences. This encompasses the quality of learning environments, the richness of experiences, the array of opportunities, the outcomes achieved, as well as the effectiveness of services and supports within schools and across school districts.

Next-generation accountability models are designed to foster engagement through reciprocal systems, enabling all stakeholders, including students, to play a role in the accountability process. This involvement spans from the initial stages of designing expectations to determining how these expectations will be assessed. Additionally, stakeholders are involved in deciding the frequency of data and information release and the mechanisms through which this information will be shared.

As of 2023, it is imperative to underscore that next-generation accountability models transcend the reliance on standardized tests as the sole tool to measure the quality of a school or school district. These next-generation models acknowledge and emphasize that engagement is the catalyst for empowerment, recognizing that public education consistently requires empowering stakeholders to actively participate in school activities, decision-making processes, strategic planning, and the establishment of local accountability measures. By recognizing and valuing the diverse contributions of all stakeholders, including students, the education system can cultivate a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to accountability that better reflects the multifaceted nature of quality education.

Interoperability.? The optimal functioning of state and local accountability systems requires a seamless integration, ensuring the delivery of the most precise and up-to-date data to stakeholders. Currently, and for the foreseeable future, traditional accountability and local accountability systems may operate either in tandem or independently. Regardless of their mode of operation, it is imperative that both accountability systems furnish stakeholders with real-time and valuable data. The ideal scenario envisions local accountability seamlessly complementing traditional accountability components where the latter may fall short. Often, traditional accountability models face challenges in meeting local expectations, precisely where the local accountability system can play a pivotal role in bridging the gap and ensuring alignment with the demands and expectations of the local community. As public education navigates the evolving landscape of educational accountability, the collaboration and synergy between these systems become paramount, reinforcing the need for a comprehensive and adaptable approach to cater to the diverse needs of stakeholders.

The ecosystem of local accountability does not necessitate the complete abandonment of legacy accountability models. In fact, when designed by the community and operated effectively, local accountability systems can enhance the level of reporting and transparency. A school or school district should not adopt a local accountability model without a nuanced understanding of the dynamics of the current reality. The widespread use of local accountability as the sole model is likely several years away, if feasible at all. Presently, the Measures of Quality are functioning as a local accountability model, but they are operating within the context of a broader accountability framework. This highlights the transitional nature of accountability systems and underscores the importance of a gradual and well-informed approach in implementing and integrating local accountability measures.

Autonomy. Autonomy represents the pivotal capacity of schools and school districts to formulate an accountability system aligned with the unique goals and expectations of their local communities. Notably absent from the conventional accountability models in place since the early 1990s, autonomy has surged to the forefront with the emergence of next-generation accountability frameworks. The demand for autonomy and accountability at the local level has reached unprecedented heights, heralding a transformative shift in educational paradigms.

Empowering schools and school districts with a high degree of autonomy positions them to effectively address local expectations, goals, and needs. This newfound autonomy is a game-changer, enabling educational institutions to harmonize with shared local expectations while upholding stringent accountability standards. The integration of autonomy within the educational framework is crucial, allowing for adaptability and flexibility to tailor the accountability model at the local level, thus ensuring a more responsive and community-centric educational approach.

One of the chief limitations of traditional accountability models lies in their generic and one-size-fits-all approach, operating under the assumption that all schools and districts are uniform entities. This fails to consider the diverse demographics, local expectations, goals, and workforce trends unique to each community. Local accountability, therefore, necessitates the autonomy to modify its components based on local trends, a prerogative to be determined collaboratively by educators, parents, business leaders, and community members alike. The shift towards localized autonomy represents a noticeable and transformative departure from the standardized educational models of the past, fostering a more dynamic and community-responsive approach to accountability.

Research-based. An effective accountability system, including local accountability, must not solely rely on local community expectations; it also necessitates a foundation of research that validates the appropriateness and methodology for measuring the effectiveness of a school or school district. While local accountability is undeniably rooted in community expectations, its components, for the sake of interoperability, must be firmly grounded in research. Furthermore, these components should be both measurable and impactful. Although the inclination may exist to evaluate and measure every aspect within a district under the banner of local accountability, the most effective strategy is to focus on assessing district components that will instigate meaningful change for students.

While next-generation accountability models remain relatively scarce nationwide, some exemplary systems are already operational in various school districts. Notably, models such as Measures of Quality, implemented in Fleming County Schools, stand out for their research-based foundations. The initial version, released in January 2022, lacked a research basis, attempting to evaluate and measure a broad spectrum of elements. Recognizing the critical importance of grounding components in research, subsequent iterations, including version 1.0, underscored the significance of components having a direct impact, whether positive or negative, on students. This impact extends to various facets, such as learning environments, experiences, opportunities, outcomes, services, and support. The evolution towards research-backed components is indicative of a commitment to a more informed and effective approach to accountability within educational systems.

A Closing Thought

Local accountability ecosystems stand as catalysts poised to revolutionize the educational landscape for the next generation. These ecosystems, when harnessed effectively, have the transformative potential to empower and engage stakeholders in a collaborative endeavor towards creating exceptional learning environments, experiences, opportunities, outcomes, services, and supports for students. By cultivating a culture of collaboration and placing students at the center, these ecosystems ensure that education is intricately aligned with the distinctive needs and aspirations of the local community.

To be certain, local accountability ecosystems are dynamic and student-centered frameworks that intricately interconnect various stakeholders, institutions, and mechanisms. Deliberately crafted to foster and reestablish accountability within the local school or school district, these ecosystems place a strong emphasis on locally defined expectations and goals. This intentional design empowers and engages students, local educators, parents, guardians, business leaders, and other community stakeholders, fostering a collaborative environment that ensures the educational experience closely aligns with the unique needs and aspirations of the local community.

These ecosystems, rooted in local community expectations, maintain a steadfast focus on the needs of students, establishing a robust link between core and employability skills. Through an expectation of personalized learning, local accountability ecosystems empower students to showcase their readiness by applying and utilizing their skills, strengths, and talents. As we embrace the dynamic nature of these ecosystems, we pave the way for a more responsive, inclusive, and effective educational future that nurtures the diverse potential within our local communities.