Accountability Makes No Sense When It Undermines The...

Accountability makes no sense when it undermines the larger goals of education.† - Diane Ravitch Accountability is the key factor in current educational reforms. Current educational reforms have uprooted public schools across the country and has citizens wondering what will happen next. In order for citizens to know what is to come they must know what has already occurred. Many of the changes made today started with the first educational reform to establish measurable accountability, No Child Left Behind Act. Before the establishment of The United States of America, the colonist held education as an important entity to the life of the colonist children. In 1642 Massachusetts General Court created the first education law to â€Å"make certain†¦show more content†¦For instance, the Clinton Administration reauthorized ESEA with the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994 (IASA) Manna, 2011, p.6). IASA focused on educational reform and provisions through creating a Title 1 program, providing extra help to disadvantaged students and holding schools accountable, charter schools, safe and drug free schools, increased funding for bilingual and immigrant education and education technology (wiki). As a result of IASA, states began to pay more attention to local school districts. For example, in 1998 the New Jersey Supreme Court determined the state was not meeting the needs of underprivileged school districts to help them meet the national standard (Walker, 2004, p.338). To make an effort to improve the school systems, New Jersey identified 30 of the poorest school districts, known as Abbott, to focus on allocating more money to assist the students in achieving better test scores (Walker, 2004, p.339). Nevertheless, the Bush administration reviewed the educational reform policies and set to make changes quickly. Therefore, in 2001 the administration passed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). NCLB