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The accountability system of the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) holds each school accountable through a system of school and district report cards that emphasize performance on standards-based student assessments (e.g., percent of students reaching the proficient or advanced level in various academic subjects).

WCER researcher William Clune is studying the system and finds there are no specific sanctions for failure to meet goals or incentives for success. Rather, the system is based on "professional accountability," the willingness of school and district staff to solve problems cooperatively and achieve educational improvement.

However, consequences do exist in the form of technical assistance and organized school improvement. Effects of the system are made known through feedback from the Accountability Task Force, but there is no systematic survey of principals and teachers, nor is there an effective way to evaluate educational interventions (due to lack of data and data processing limitations).

Strengths of the system include: the focus on school responsibility, use of standards-based outcomes, discretionary problem solving based on multi-year trends, organized school inspection and improvement, and governance through the Task Force.

The primary weakness is lack of adequate data, especially data on the performance of individual students over time, which severely limits accountability, diagnosis of problems, and educational problem solving. Other weaknesses include the lack of specific incentives for change, rapid changes in goals due to an emerging state role, possible lack of coordination of school improvement around performance goals, and absence of a mechanism for joint state/local governance.

The basic model of a system oriented toward high priority aspects of student achievement governed through an Accountability Task Force is excellent. Serious attention should be given to solving the data problems and supplementing the testing system. Clune also recommends that the district consider adopting specific incentives of the kind used in other states and districts, such as cash rewards for successful schools, and some kind of joint state/local governance mechanism.

Clune's future research will focus on developing better data, the use of data in school improvement and technical assistance, and the coordination of technical assistance around common goals for student learning.

For more information contact Clune at whclune@facstaff.wisc.edu