Accountability, Assessment, and Teacher Commitment : Lessons from Kentucky's Reform Efforts

Provides the basis for thoughtful reflection and discussion of school accountability by critically examining Kentucky's groundbreaking educational reform strategy of statewide student assessment and teacher accountability.

Accountability, Assessment, and Teacher Commitment offers a vantage point to draw lessons from, and ponder alternatives to, the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), a state school reform effort based on a system of statewide student assessment and high-stakes accountability for teachers. It documents classroom realities and probes the consequences of this type of reform through case studies, comparisons to alternative models, and thought-provoking responses from national experts.

Contributors include Lola Aagaard; Terry I. Brooks; Jan Calvert; Pamelia Coe; Dick Corbett; Letitia Hichstrasser Fickel; Donna Gaus; Marilyn Hohmann; Ken Jones; Patricia J. Kannapel; A. Richardson Love Jr.; Christy D. McGee; Lynne Miller; Beverly D. Moore; Cynthia A. Reeves; David Ruff; Gordon Ruscoe; Linda Shelor; Debra Smith; John Snyder; Patricia A. Wasley; Anne Wheelock; and Betty Lou Whitford.

Betty Lou Whitford is Professor of Education and Director of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the coauthor, with Gordon Ruscoe and Letitia Fickel, of Knitting It All Together: Collaborative Teacher Education in Southern Maine. Ken Jones is Mathematics Specialist at Gheens Academy/Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville.