Reports
June 25, 2009
School Accountability — A Broader, Bolder Approach
Report of the Accountability Committee of the Broader Bolder Approach to Education Campaign
The Accountability Committee of the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education campaign has released its report with recommendations for the re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, known temporarily during the Bush Administration as the "No Child Left Behind Act," or NCLB).
This new BBA report recommends that ESEA expand the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test given to a representative sample of the nation's students, to cover a broad range of subjects — not only math and reading — to counteract the narrowing of the curriculum spurred in recent years by NCLB. And the report further recommends that ESEA permit states flexibility in designing their accountability systems, provided these systems include qualitative evaluation of school quality and do not rely primarily on standardized test scores to judge the success of schools.
Read press release 
See video of committee members describing BBA accountability principles
See videos of candidate and President Obama expressing agreement with BBA accountability principles
See July 2009 follow-up memorandum to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, describing how American Reinvestment and Recovery Funds (stimulus money) could be used to support states in their development of qualitative evaluation systems (inspectorates) for schools and districts.
See June 2009 follow-up memorandum to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, proposing a gradual implementation of the BBA Accountability Statement's recommendation to expand the sampling and coverage of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
See September 2009 follow-up report on estimating the cost of an accountability system that employed inspectors to make qualitative judgments and did not rely exclusively on test scores to judge schools. (See accompanying spreadsheet.)
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