The Infrastructure of Accountability: Data Use and the Transformation of American Education - Softcover

Over the past 20 years, schools and school systems have been utterly reshaped by the demands of test-based accountability. The Infrastructure of Accountability brings together leading and emerging scholars to explore the hidden infrastructure that supports the production, flow, and use of data in education. The contributors set forth an ambitious conceptual framework for understanding the full impact of large-scale, performance-based accountability systems on education.

This bold and thought-provoking volume presents a fresh perspective on the defining characteristics of the American education system today.

&;Methodologically diverse and inductive in spirit&;[these essays] are looking at the ways the accountability systems operate on and through real people&;people who sometimes misunderstand, sometimes deliberately flout, and sometimes creatively reconfigure the incentives meant to steer them and the data meant to inform them.&; &; From the foreword by Jeffrey R. Henig, professor of political science and education, Teachers College, Columbia University

&;The balance of perspectives in a single volume is refreshing&;especially for a subject where taking sides appears to be standard operating procedure. The Infrastructure of Accountability should be required reading for anyone interested in the construction and consequences of test-based accountability systems.&; &; James P. Spillane, Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Chair in Learning and Organizational Change, School of Education and Social Policy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

&;The authors show how the geometric growth of quantitative data on the performance of students, teachers, and schools may reshape the complex ecology of the classroom in ways that are more conducive to efficiency than education. The foreword and introduction alone are worth the price of the book.&; &; David F. Labaree, professor of education, Stanford University School of Education

Dorothea Anagnostopoulos is an associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. Stacey A. Rutledge is an associate professor of educational leadership and policy at Florida State University. Rebecca Jacobsen is an assistant professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University.