Build a Better Mousetrap: A Review of State School Accountability Models and Their Relation to the Socio-Economic Status of Students.

This study aims to identify [or create] equitable accountability systems that can be used to drive sustainable school improvement. In this context, equitable accountability is defined as a measure more of the school’s impact on student achievement and less a measure of the socio-economic status of the students enrolled in the school. To do this, the study begins with a review of the history and current state of school accountability policies in the US and its relation to the concepts of school improvement, between accountability and student achievement, a review of accountability policy in each state and the possible future model of accountability policy. This study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods with a policy analysis informing state correlational comparisons, which in turn informed the models to be applied to the Florida data to identify how they perform (correlate), culminating in the development of a new school accountability model. The policy analysis revealed current school accountability in all 50 states and the District of Columbia as well as the relationship between socio-economic status and school accountability in each where data were available. Five of these state models were shown to be significantly less related to socio-economic status than Florida. However, only two of these models performed similarly when applied to Florida data. Finally, a model was proposed that included aspects from these states and available literature that performed similarly to these two states. This study represents an important first step in a larger policy discussion of how to hold schools accountable for their impact on students and not a measure of the demographics of the students they are serving.