| Title: |
Making Room for What Matters: Innovative School Leaders Want Accountability, but with a Lighter Footprint |
| Language: |
English |
| Authors: |
Chelsea Waite; David Nitkin; Janette Avelar; Arizona State University (ASU), Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) |
| Source: |
Center on Reinventing Public Education. 2025. |
| Availability: |
Center on Reinventing Public Education. Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University. H.B. Farmer Education Building, 1050 S Forest Mall, Tempe, AZ 85281. e-mail: crpe@uw.edu; Web site: https://crpe.org/ |
| Peer Reviewed: |
Y |
| Page Count: |
23 |
| Publication Date: |
2025 |
| Sponsoring Agency: |
Barr Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York |
| Document Type: |
Reports - Evaluative |
| Education Level: |
Elementary Secondary Education; Elementary Education; Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education; High Schools |
| Descriptors: |
Accountability; Public Schools; Charter Schools; State Policy; Educational Policy; Educational Innovation; Administrator Attitudes; Elementary Schools; Middle Schools; High Schools; Educational Legislation; Federal Legislation |
| Geographic Terms: |
Massachusetts |
| Laws, Policies and Program Identifiers: |
Every Student Succeeds Act 2015 |
| Abstract: |
In the U.S., public education is at a crossroads. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the opportunities young people will have for work and social connection; basic math and literacy skills have been declining for a decade; and too many students and families find school increasingly irrelevant. Recent efforts to dismantle federal education infrastructure signal dissatisfaction, and accountability for student outcomes is now up for debate. Some argue that accountability must be strengthened; others increasingly question whether holding schools accountable for test scores makes sense at all. Since 2022, in the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) and Transcend's annual scan of innovative schools--the Canopy project-- accountability has regularly come up as one of the key policy factors that affects schools' ability to design and implement new learning models that will better serve students. As has been written before, Canopy schools are innovating to solve urgent problems by increasing student agency and improving achievement. They are changing how students learn and how teachers teach, responding to community priorities, and preparing students to thrive in an uncertain, AI-driven future. These innovations don't appear to come at the expense of performance on traditional student learning outcomes; exploratory research has found that on average, Canopy schools perform similarly to other comparable schools on traditional measures, and many also self-report promising results in areas that traditional metrics don't capture. This report informs state and national discussions about the future of accountability policy by answering two questions: (1) How are leaders of Canopy schools affected by current state accountability practices? And (2) What accountability policies do they hope to see in the future? The authors answer these questions using data from Canopy's annual survey of 186 innovative school leaders, as well as interviews with eight of those leaders. [This report was produced with Transcend.] |
| Abstractor: |
ERIC |
| Entry Date: |
2025 |
| Accession Number: |
ED676329 |
| Database: |
ERIC |