Promise,Progress,Problems,and Paradoxes of Three Phases of Accountability: A Longitudinal Case Study of the Baltimore City Public Schools

Abstract

Issues associated with attempting to achieve academic equity while raising achievement gains for all Americans are being negotiated at a large scale and with particular urgency in our urban school districts. Building from a decade of archival data, 6 years of student-level quantitative data, semi-structured interviews, document analyses, and observations of key informants, the authors examine the long-term interplay of shifting state and federal policies related to accountability requirements, organizational responses, and student outcome measures in the Baltimore City Public School System, a large, high-poverty, majority-minority urban school system. Analyses conducted from 1992 through the spring of 2003 are presented in light of both increasing accountability requirements and national and state calls for urban school reform. The authors conclude by examining possible implications for districts and states serving large concentrations of students at risk.