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Most states in the United States are implementing standards-based reform. A key component of this type of reform is the notion that higher standards are intended for all students, including students with disabilities. Performance on these higher standards is typically measured through large-scale assessment systems, from which many students with disabilities have been excluded. Without these students' participation in the standards movement, states will be lacking critical information on the efficacy of instructional programs for all students. In order to participate, some students with disabilities may require accommodations on these assessments. The issue of accommodations presents many challenges, from legal to psychometric. Given the high-stakes nature of these assessments when used as part of the state accountability system in which financial, legal, and instructional decisions are made, these challenges need to be addressed. This study examined the effects of providing the accommodation of reading the mathematics items to students on the fourth-grade version of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. Specifically this study addressed the question, Does reading the mathematics items allow students with learning disabilities to demonstrate their knowledge without affecting the validity of the test? Results provide support for the continued use of this accommodation for students with disabilities that affect reading. Further research is needed in this area, especially as stakes increase for both schools and individual students.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997 require that all states, by July 2000, will have developed and implemented alternate assessment methods for those students with disabilities who cannot be included within regular state and local district educational assessment and accountability measures. A statewide survey of teachers involved in the nation's first alternate assessment and accountability system for students with moderate and severe disabilities was conducted to determine the extent to which these teachers perceived benefits of including their students in state and school accountability measures, as well as their perceptions of the instructional impact of the alternate system upon student outcomes. The results of this survey indicated that teachers did realize such benefits, and perceived positive changes in both instructional programming (e.g., students' learning to follow their own individualized schedules, students' learning to assess their own performance) and enhanced student outcomes (an increased percentage of students having functional augmentative communication systems). However, teachers also expressed frustration with the amount of time required to complete student assessment portfolios, and concern over scoring reliability and the extent to which the alternate assessment was more of a teacher assessment than a student assessment.

Compares Palestine and Cambodia with respect to the involvement of NGOs in generating sustainable development. Both countries have suffered war and both still struggle for a fragile peace; success appears to hinge on the international community’s ability to achieve economic development and real social and political improvements. Results can be achieved through: co‐operation between donor services and local authorities, using assistance to increase local entrepreneurship, economic independence and active participation; making formal agreements between NGO and local authorities as to duties and remit of the aid operations; establishment of a workable accountability system; formation of a structured co‐ordination framework; and using UN agencies more frequently and extensively.

In the U.S. many states are in the process of developing and implementing new educational accountability policies that differ from prior systems in varying degrees. This study examined educational accountability system implementation experiences in Colorado and Maryland. Data obtained from policy stakeholders in each state at the district and school levels of analysis were used to illustrate key elements of three policy system models supported in the policy and organizational studies literature; the institutional, rational, and interpretive models. These models formed the basis for a framework to examine the implementation of educational accountability policy systems in the two states. Experiences observed suggested that while a particular perspective may appear to dominate at a certain level of the policy system, institutional, rational, and interpretive models all contribute to the framework proposed by the authors.

In search of levelling up from “good” to ‘great’ and ‘excellent’, the major challenge for Hong Kong is to have a balanced development of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities as well as hard and soft skills. The purpose of this chapter is fourfold: First, it is a comprehensive review of the social-cultural-political-economic context of HK education reform and the major accomplishments and challenges of its basic education system. Second is the empirical examination of the various forms of decentralized-centralized system advocated and implemented globally and locally in Hong Kong. Third is the analysis of the major actors and the main decision areas delegated to schools as well as the actual impacts of SBM on students’ outcomes in Hong Kong. Fourth is the examination of the centralization policy of quality assurance mechanism and accountability system under the SBM in Hong Kong. Finally, it is argued that SBM and multilevel assessments, as used tactically in strong performing countries, could be cost-effective tools for sustaining educational improvement.

During the 11th FYP, China has formulated a series of policies regarding low-carbon development, represented by the 20% overall energy conservation (binding) target. According to the report on the 11th FYP's energy conservation target published by the NDRC and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBU) in June 2011, all provinces have completed their binding targets, thus local governments have played a critical role in China's low-carbon development and energy conservation. During the 11th FYP, the central government established an energy conservation target accountability system with a top-down approach, supplemented by a corresponding evaluation system. The course of 11th FYP, local administrations tasked with energy conservation were gradually established and developed, forming a management framework that exists at the central, provincial, city and county levels. Local governments have also established management measures for procedures such as fund requisition and verification. Keywords: 11th FYP; energy conservation; local governments; low-carbon development; National Bureau of Statistics (NBU)

The design of the comitology system is far from parsimonious. It is not just ‘institutionally schizophrenic’ (Brandsma, Curtin and Meijer, 2008) in the sense that it is a device pushed mainly by the Council in order to ‘rein in’ the supranational executive competences of the Commission. From its very inception, the comitology system has been Janus-faced in its accountability tasks. On the one hand, the committees are designed to be the control devices of the member states over the Commission. From the moment the very first committee was established, the Council has systematically created stricter procedures than the Commission had proposed. This has led, for instance, to the creation of regulatory procedures in the 1960s, and to the introduction of member state expert groups for delegated acts in the 2011 reform.

Focusing on the equity aspect of proposals for making opportunity-to-learn standards integral to an accountability system, this article discusses conceptual issues surrounding determination of equal educational opportunity and explores ways that these issues manifest themselves in empirical formulations of opportunity to learn (OTL). Using two databases, OTL measures are developed according to three alternative conceptions of equality—the Libertarian, Liberal, and Democratic Liberal conceptions—and the influence of these conceptions on the information provided is compared. This examination shows the intimate relation between values on equality and measures of equality and brings these issues to the fore for discussion by educators and policymakers.

In this chapter, the authors propose and evaluate an accountability system based on indicators that combine elements of both inputs and outcomes. The authors stress the importance of ensuring that accountability systems in education are flexible and sensitive to the sometimes competing ends that schooling systems pursue. This approach places considerable emphasis on open inquiry and discussion between centralized authorities and constituent schooling units. The authors envision a four phase accountability strategy which attempts to move the system away from a reliance on penalties and rewards and toward a system based on cooperation and communication. An overview of an effort to implement this kind of approach in New York State is provided.

The main purpose of the study is twofold: to get some lessons by examining current strategies, reforms and quality framework relating to quality higher education employed by Singapore and Malaysia and to put forward some policy recommendations to higher educational institutions, governments, policymakers and all other stakeholders of Bangladesh for enhancing the quality in higher education. This study has been conducted mostly based on secondary data by reviewing official publications, both national and international, on quality aspects of higher education of these countries. Published and unpublished research papers, working papers, seminar and conference proceedings, online resources have also been used. In one end, the review findings of this paper show that though the higher education sector of Bangladesh, both public and private, is regulated by the Ministry of Education, there is no legal body in Bangladesh except University Grant Commission to ensure the quality of higher education. In addition to this, this study has also found that there is no accreditation agencies, no accountability system and no academic auditing system in Bangladesh to ensure the quality of higher education though these three key important factors has already been ensured both in Singaporean and Malaysian system of higher of education. It is also observed that a bundle of supportive strategies have been active behind the development of quality higher education of the two countries- Singapore and Malaysia. Finally, the researchers have put some way forward for Bangladesh to be followed to develop the nascent condition of quality in higher education institutions.

Regulations and societal expectations have recently emphasized the need to mediate access to valuable databases, even access by insiders. Fraud occurs when a person, often an insider, tries to hide illegal activity. Companies would like to be assured that such tampering has not occurred, or if it does, that it will be quickly discovered and used to identify the perpetrator. At one end of the compliance spectrum lies the approach of restricting access to information and on the other that of information accountability. We focus on effecting information accountability of data stored in high-performance databases. The demonstrated work ensures appropriate use and thus end-to-end accountability of database information via a continuous assurance technology based on cryptographic hashing techniques. A prototype tamper detection and forensic analysis system named DRAGOON was designed and implemented to determine when tampering(s) occurred and what data were tampered with. DRAGOON is scalable, customizable, and intuitive. This work will show that information accountability is a viable alternative to information restriction for ensuring the correct storage, use, and maintenance of databases on extant DBMSes.

In this chapter, we reflect on the relationships among assessment, teaching and learning in classrooms, within the context of assessment practices beyond the classroom. In line with Graham Nuthall (this volume, chapter 1), we argue that teaching, learning and assessment are not just about individuals and cognition, but also about the activities of learning communities and the properties of those activities that children internalise. We consider links among different forms of assessment and instruction, and their implications for broader aspects of children’s development, including their intellectual, relational, epistemological and moral agency. We also examine the impact of assessment practices beyond the classroom, such as high-stakes testing, on classroom activity systems.

This chapter explores the implications of the discussion of legislation, policy and practice in educational accountability with students with impairment in Chaps. 1 through 3 and the identified explicit and implicit assumptions identified in Chap. 4 for equitable educational accountability practice for these students in the future. It elaborates first the concept of a psychometric model of impairment in educational accountability and shows that psychometric overconcern with standardization of process as the means to promote assessment fairness has the opposite effect---a negative impact on equitable inclusion of students with impairment in educational accountability. Three recommendations for future policy and practice are made: the need for greater variety of assessment forms to allow students with impairment optimal demonstration of their educational achievement; the need for educational standards that are appropriate for students with impairment so that achievement and growth can be monitored in meaningful ways for schools, students and parents; and, finally, the need for further research to explore the interaction between impairment and knowledge construction to ensure that the construction of educational achievement outcomes for students with impairment is not standardized as a deficit against the achievements of those without impairment.

Courts play a prominent and significant role in holding public bodies to account in the UK, most obviously through the exercise of powers of judicial review. However, the accountability 'system' extends far beyond the courts, encompassing (among other institutions) tribunals, ombudsmen and inquiries into matters of public concern. This chapter argues that accountability is a protean concept, and that the accountability system must therefore exhibit appropriate diversity if accountability in all its relevant senses is to be secured. This raises questions about the balance and relationship between legal and political mechanisms for supplying accountability. It is argued that an increasing tendency to view the legal-judicial model as a paradigm places other accountability institutions at risk of inappropriate judicialisation. That trend, it is contended, must not continue unchecked if the accountability system is to remain suitably diverse.

This article examines whether unmanned aerial vehicles (“drones”) allow the U.S. executive branch to make use-of-force decisions that escape accountability. It identifies three accountability mechanisms that should constrain use-of-force decisions: political accountability; fiscal and supervisory accountability; and legal accountability. It examines the effectiveness of these accountability mechanisms in the abstract and how the unique features of drones interact with these mechanisms. Finally, this article suggests that drones exacerbate preexisting weaknesses in the accountability system governing U.S. use-of-force decisions, potentially leading to unaccountable use-of-force decisions which, in turn, are likely to be riskier and may increase the likelihood of policy failure.

The State of Qatar is a small, rich, developing country in the Arabian Gulf which introduced an extensive U.S.-inspired educational reform in 2004. A prominent part of the reform is a performance-based accountability system that includes national and international assessments. On the surface, the Qatari model shares a number of characteristics with Western systems. However, the local capacity issues prove to challenge the promise of the standards-based reforms. School leaders are struggling to satisfy the new demands that are being measured annually by addressing pedagogical, professional, and sociolinguistic issues on the ground. In their struggle to negotiate between the demands of the new reforms and local realities, school leaders are experiencing their own steep learning curve.

The English school system is characterized by high levels of school autonomy coupled with high levels of accountability and a great frequency of change following policies instigated in the late-1980s but strengthened over time. School leaders play a very strong role in their schools and are therefore subject to significant pressures. This is leading to a systemic problem in terms of the capacities of the headteacher to take on these tasks in an effective way and to a crisis of recruitment where even those leaders who have completed the National Professional Qualification for Headteachers often fail to move into headteacher jobs. Some creative solutions are being developed to alleviate these issues, however. These include increased training and professional development for school leaders, the encouragement of distributed forms of leadership in schools, the development of the role of the School Business Manager, a non-educator charged with factors such as administrative and financial management and the development of school-to-school collaboration and networking. While all these developments have potential, they do themselves pose leadership challenges that require careful management and the development of localized professional development strategies.

The aim of this paper was to quantify teacher behaviors that were associated with high levels of student involvement and, hence, provide further understanding of student accountability. Two observation instruments were used to collect data from teachers during a secondary school volleyball unit. Results showed that the more effective teacher (as measured by ALT-PE) spent more lesson time in the functional behaviors of concurrent instruction and intervening instruction, whereas the less effective teachers spent more time in noninteractive behaviors such as observing. Furthermore, specific cycles of teaching behaviors that discriminated between the effective and less effective teachers were identified. The results are explained in terms of the development of a successful instructional accountability system being developed by the effective teacher in contrast to the instructional pseudoaccountability of the less effective teachers.

A team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed an RFID Accountability System (RAS) that allows items with active RFID tags to be tracked in environments where tags may not be able to transmit their location continuously. The system uses activators that transmit a short range signal. Active RFID tags are in a sleep state until they encounter an activator. Then they transmit a signal that is picked up by the antennas installed throughout the building. This paper presents the theory of operation, application areas, lessons learned, and key features developed over the course of seven years of development and use.

Under the backgrounds of ‘law-based politics’ and ‘active development of democratic politics’ of China, issues related to accountability system for officials are becoming an important topic in this hotspots. Currently, in terms of mining disasters, a series of problems are still very common: a positive atmosphere of practicing accountability system for officials still has not been formed; laws and regulations used to support the accountability system for officials are still far away from mature; officials who should take responsibilities for mining disasters are not willing to take the blame and resign. To solve the problems mentioned above, some possible solutions are raised, such as intensifying the officials' consciousness of practicing the accountability system, building up the accountability system with laws and regulations, and completing relevant institutions and regulations to ensure the accountability of officials.

Hong Kong continues to command international attention with respect to its political development. The new Political Accountability system shows one attempt at political reform within the HKSAR.

More raw data on schools exist today than at any other time in history. States and districts are using these data to make a wide range of high-stakes decisions, from which schools to close, to which teachers to fire, to which students to promote. Yet, despite the magnitude of data on education, policymakers, practitioners, parents, politicians, journalists, and other stakeholders lack crucial information about what actually takes place in schools and actionable evidence about how to improve them. To redress this shortage, sociologists and other education researchers must find new ways to organize, conceptualize—and move beyond—the mountains of data that threaten to overwhelm schools.

This chapter describes the results of an intensive, qualitative study of US urban school leaders’ work, in 15 schools across four states. The study examined leaders with supervisory authority (principals, assistant principals, department heads) and their nonsupervisory counterparts (teacher leaders) who were engaged in individual and collective efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning in their schools. The schools in this study were finding ways to support progress among a diverse student clientele, share the leadership work among various staff members, and align resources with a shared agenda for improving learning across the school. This chapter suggests lessons and provides images of possibility for schools, and for those who support the work of educators in schools, concerning the ways that leadership can be focused on the learning of students, staff, and the entire school community. The study findings suggest several ways of thinking about and exercising learning-focused leadership in these schools that may help to explain why they are doing well, and how others could do so. In particular, the chapter portrays: (1) what it means for leaders to work within a demanding environment; (2) what supervisory and nonsupervisory leaders do in these kinds of settings; and (3) what their work implies for the new learning they will need to do.

This paper presents the first causal evidence on the effects of school accountability systems on teacher labor markets. We exploit a 2002 change in Florida's school accountability system that exogenously shocked some schools to higher accountability grades and others to lower accountability grades, and measure whether teachers in shocked schools are more or less likely to move. Using microdata from the universe of Florida public school teachers, we find strong evidence that accountability shocks influence the teacher labor market; specifically, teachers are more likely to leave schools that have been downward shocked -- especially to the bottom grade -- and they are less likely to leave schools that have been upward shocked. We also find that accountability shocks influence the distribution of the measured quality of teachers (in terms of value added measures) who stay and leave their school, though the average differences are not large.

This paper reviews the experiences of intergovernmental fiscal systems (IGFS) to look for possible lessons for how Official Development Assistance (ODA) is delivered. Specifically, it compares IGFS and ODA in two specific respects. The first is the proportion of public resources that central governments make available to sub-national governments on a conditional basis, and how that compares with the proportion of non-earmarked ODA given to low income countries. The second is the role of performance outcome in resource allocation to sub-national governments and how that compares with the role of performance in ODA, particularly multilateral ODA allocation. The comparisons show that: (i) the share of earmarked ODA is more than three times higher than that of conditional grants in intergovernmental systems, suggesting that donors in ODA rely more on earmarking to influence the spending decisions of the recipient countries than their federal governments do on conditional grants to induce policy changes in their own sub-national governments; and (ii) none of the OECD countries currently use outcome measures in determining resource allocation to their sub-national governments for a variety of good reasons, and the recent debate as to whether multilateral ODA allocation should be based on development outcomes seems to ignore this experience.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 offers an accountability system that pairs vague, manipulable, and likely inefficient standards with threatened sanctions for failure to meet these standards that are not credible, and in one way or another, all of these problems arise from NCLB’s flawed focus on proficiency. The goal of accountability systems should be efficiency and not proficiency. Accountability systems should require schools receiving federal funds to demonstrate that they are using resources efficiently, and the most reliable way to promote efficiency is to organize competitions among schools and let the outcomes of these contests dictate which schools receive government funding and to what extent. Within this framework, voucher systems are not substitutes for accountability systems but instead may be one important component of the optimal accountability system.

“International competitiveness” is the discourse for business leaders in aspiring global cities posturing themselves for visibility and investment. In the trade magazine cited above, the language of business has an eerie resemblance to the language of educational reformers in both Mexico and the United States who advocate for competitive models focused on standardized testing to improve schools. But up to a half of the students in both countries live impoverished, economically marginal lives. In globalizing cities, a central question involves what students learn and are prepared for: informal, low-wage work or skilled, creative high-wage professional and managerial occupations? Our research, focused on the U.S. side of the metropolitan border region that is currently deeply enmeshed in standardized testing, is a way to anticipate trends on the Mexico side of the border.

The finances of colleges and universities are increasingly under the scrutiny of policymakers, researchers, and families. Much of the attention focused on money has been in reaction to skyrocketing tuition costs. From 1980–81 to 2008–09, the average list price of a public, four-year institution rose twice as fast as inflation.1 Questions about whether the escalation of college costs has been justified have translated into calls for greater accountability in postsecondary finance. The focus on college prices reached a fever pitch with a 2003 proposal by Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon to penalize colleges that raise their prices too high by denying them eligibility to participate in federal student-aid programs. While the measure was hotly debated, the ensuing debate highlighted the view that colleges are doing little to keep costs in check.2

The past two decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in the importance and prevalence of large-scale assessment for accountability purposes. Programs have been introduced with the expectation of realizing significant collective and individual benefits, including raised educational standards, particularly for traditionally low-achieving groups of students; greater attention to important curriculum content; better information about student progress for the purposes of informing parents and guiding and improving teaching and learning; and greater transparency regarding the performance of schools and systems.

Studies suggest that the No Child Left Behind Act's goal of 100 percent of U.S. students proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014 will not be met. Broad implementation guidelines have resulted in a different accountability system in every state.

Recent calls for increased investments in postsecondary education have been accompanied by demands for greater accountability from colleges and universities. It is politically difficult in a time of scarce resources to allocate new funds without requiring measurable outcomes in return. At the same time, effective accountability systems in education are rare. Therefore, in this chapter I consider the potential for successfully framing and enacting accountability frameworks for community colleges. I argue that the usual approach to accountability requires substantial reform if it stands any chance of succeeding in this sector, but that success is possible and likely.

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze task systems in elementary physical education classes. Two elementary physical education specialists were observed during 34 classes. Systematic observation strategies were used to describe and analyze classroom events. Data supported the existence of managerial and instructional task systems along with an informal social task system. Students complied with managerial tasks; modifications were not evident. Students’ responses to instruction were either (a) on the stated task with success or little or no success, (b) upward or downward task modifications, or (c) off-task. Primarily, students stayed on-task whether they were successful or not. Relationships among tasks within lessons indicated that the teachers used a pattern of informing, extending, and applying tasks. A less formal accountability system was evident as children were not involved in the formal exchange of performance for grades. Managerial, instructional, and social task systems did not operate exclusively but interacted with one another.

Sommaire: Au sein de la fonction publique quebecoise, la deconcentration des responsabilites et de l'autorite contribue a rapprocher la prise de decision des personnes directement responsables de la fourniture des services aux citoyens et, de ce fait, susceptibles de mieux identifier leurs besoins et les moyens d'y repondre. Cette deconcentration doit s'accompagner de l'implantation progressive de l'imputabilite dans la fonction publique; c'est-a-dire de l'obligation des mandataires de rendre compte aupres des mandants et d‘etre sanctionnes, quant a l'usage “convenable” de l'autorite deleguee, a l'exercice adequat de leurs responsabilites et a l'atteinte des resultats attendus. L'implantation de l'imputabilite doit s'inscrire dans un processus de changement continu, sequentiel, porteur d'une philosophie mobilisatrice, qui consolide ce qui existe deja et respecte la specificite de la fonction publique. L'imputabilite interne se caracterise par une reddition de comptes de bas en haut de la hierarchie et se concretise par la fixation d'objectis precis et la delegation des pouvoirs necessaires a leur realisation. Par ailleurs, la forme “d'imputabilite” possible au sein de la fonction publique se distingue de la pratique des entreprises privees. Ainsi, l'imputabilite implique de favoriser des modes de gestion axes sur l'atteinte des resultats, au lieu de modes axes sur le respect des processus. Mais la fonction publique, par sa nature meme, est tenue a une application impartiale, integre, transparente et equitable des programmes destines aux citoyens. II faut non seulement des resultats qui temoignent du respect de ces notions, mais aussi des processus qui le garantissent. Par ailleurs, l'atteinte des resultats n'est pas toujours facilement mesurable, surtout lorsque ces resultats concernent des valcurs aussi abstraites que la qualite de vie ou le droit a des services de sante. Bien que l'imputabilite privilegie les controles «a posteriori» sur les resultats, il reste necessaire de conserver certains controles «a priori» sur les ressources et les depenses les plus importantes, quitte a prevoir une normalisation allegee d'un aussi grand nombre possible de gestes administratifs. Plusieurs mesures ont ete mises en place au sein de la fonction publique quebecoise et concourent au developpement de l'imputabilite. On peut signaler notamment le regime d'imputabilite des sous-ministres et le systeme des attentes signifiees aux cadres superieurs. L'imputabilite exige egalement que les fonctionnaires, a tous les niveaux, possedent une comprehension adequate de la finalite des gestes qu'ils sont appeles a poser et des processus qu'ils gerent. Les demarches de planification strategique et l'implantation de la qualite totale vont dans ce sens. Il ne faut toutefois pas en deduire que l'imputabilite est realisee, bien au contraire. Cependant, la fonction publique quebecoise se rapproche de plus en plus de la forme particuliere d'imputabilite que sa nature et ses contraintes autorisent et cette imputabilite interpelle l'ensemble du personnel de la fonction publique a tous niveaux, selon ses fonctions, son role et ses responsabilites. Elle implique que des objectifs precis et comprehensibles aient ete fixes et que chacun se sente concerne et puisse questionner les ordres recus en fonction des objectifs fixes. Abstract: Within the Quebec civil service, the deconcentration of responsibility and authority helps bring decision-making closer to the people directly responsible for providing services to the public, as they are more likely to be able to identify the people's needs and the means to meet those needs. This deconcentration must be accompanied by the gradual establishment of accountability within the civil service - that is, the obligation of civil servants to account for their actions to their superiors and to be evaluated as regards the “appropriate” use of their delegated authority, the adequate fulfilment of their responsibilities and the achievement of the expected results. The implementation of accountability must occur within a continuous, sequential process of change based on a mobilizing concept and consolidating the gains already achieved even while respecting the specific characteristics of the civil service. Internal accountability is characterized by bottom-to-top reporting within the hierarchy and translates into the setting of specific goals and the delegation of the powers required for their implementation. Moreover, the type of accountability feasible within the civil service is different from private sector practice. Thus, accountability involves management methods based on the achievement of objectives instead of process-based methods. However, by its very nature, the civil service must ensure impartial, honest, transparent, and fair application of the programs designed for the citizens. In addition to results that are in line with this concept, there must also be processes that guarantee them. Furthermore, the achievement of the objectives is not always easy to measure, particularly when those objectives involve such abstract values as abstract as the quality of life or the right to health services. Moreover, although subsequent verification of the results achieved is preferred for accountability purposes, there must nevertheless be some advance controls over major resources and expenditures, perhaps by providing simplified standardization of as many administrative actions as possible. Several measures implemented within the Quebec civil service have contributed to the development of accountability, such as the deputy ministers' accountability system, and the system of expectations specified to higher managers. Accountability also requires that civil servants at all levels have an adequate understanding of the purpose of the actions they are required to take and of the processes they manage. The strategic planning procedures and implentation of total quality are steps in that direction. However, one must not conclude from this that accountability has been achieved; far from it. The Quebec civil service is getting increasingly closer to the special form of accountability that its nature and constraints allow. This involves civil service staff, at all levels, according to their functions, their roles, and their responsibilities. It implies that specific, comprehensive objectives have been set and that everyone feels involved and is able to question the orders received in terms of the objectives set.

This article examines the system of media accountability in Sweden: the code of journalistic ethics and good practice, and the apparatus for the examination and judgement of complaints. Results from an extensive research programme in Sweden demonstrate that this system has acquired legitimacy among both journalists and public. The article argues that its legitimacy derives from the way the system evolved, with the support and close involvement of the Swedish media organizations. However, in order to be truly effective, a code of conduct should be relevant to every-day journalistic practice. The article argues that the code should be capable of change and renewal if it is to become an integral part of normal, responsible journalistic practice.

According to the Russian Federation Law “On the Assurance of Measurement Uniformity”, the use of thermal-imaging devices in public health, environmental protection, and other areas in which state metrological supervision and control are mandatory is possible only with a accountability system based on national standards and normative documents. Such a system is described.

This paper examines whether school districts, and individual schools, respond to ratings from the accountability system by reallocating resources across or within schools. Our empirical work follows three identification strategies, a regression discontinuity for schools on the rating boundaries, a “rating shock” analysis for schools that face a change in rating when the state changed its accountability system, and a school fixed effects strategy. We find that school districts provided incentives for their schools to achieve higher ratings under the early accountability system, but under the later system they appear to have abandoned this strategy. In addition, the rating shock results suggest that some effort was directed towards assisting lower performing schools under the new regime. Finally, we find that in the early period incremental funds were used as much for ancillary purposes as instruction.

Accountability is an important aspect of any computer system. It assures that every action executed in the system can be traced back to some entity. Accountability is even more crucial for assuring the safety and security in grid systems, given the very large number of users active in these sophisticated environments. However, to date no comprehensive approach to accountability for grid systems exists. Our work addresses such inadequacy by developing a comprehensive accountability system driven by policies and supported by accountability agents. In this paper we first discuss the requirements that have driven the design of our accountability system and then present some interesting aspects related to our accountability framework. We describe a fully working implementation of our accountability system, and conduct extensive experimental evaluations. Our experiments, carried out using the Emulab testbed, demonstrate that the implemented system is efficient and it scales for grid systems of large number of resources and users.

"Accountability mandates" -- the explicit linking of school funding, resources, and autonomy to student performance on standardized exams -- have proliferated in the last 10 years. In this paper, we examine California's accountability system, which for several years financially rewarded schools based on a deterministic function of test scores. The sharp discontinuity in the assignment rule -- schools that barely missed their target received no funding -- generates "as good as random" assignment of awards for schools near their eligibility threshold and enables us to estimate the (local average) treatment effect of California's financial award program. This design allows us to explore an understudied aspect of accountability systems -- how schools use their financial rewards. Our findings indicate that California's accountability system significantly increased resources allocated to some schools. In the 2000 school year, the average value of the award was about 60 dollars per student and 50 dollars in 2001. Moreover, we find that the total resources flowing to districts with schools that received awards increased more than dollar for dollar. This resource shift was greatest for districts with schools that qualified for awards in the 2000 school year,the first year of the program, increasing total per pupil revenues by roughly 5 percent. Despite the increase in revenues, we find no evidence that these resources increased student achievement. Schools that won awards did not purchase more instructional material, such as computers, which may be inputs into achievement. Although the awards were likely paid out as teacher bonuses, we cannot detect any effect of these bonuses on test scores or other measures of achievement. More worrisome, we also find a practical effect of assigning the award based in part on the performance of "numerically significant subgroups" within a school was to reduce the relative resources of schools attended by traditionally disadvantaged students.

Organizational control systems are a central phenomenon, yet despite their significance, research is dominated by top-down command-and-control approaches and contingent models of goaldirected behavior. This paper introduces and empirically explores the concept of accountability system: the set of norms and practices an organization puts in place to assess, reward, and sanction the work engagement and output of an individual. Data from seven organizations are used to explore whether organizations provide distinct, useful accountability systems for individuals working in complex, knowledge activities. The findings show that organizations are struggling to set up accountability systems around the notion of contribution what would help to direct attention and mobilize effort beyond the boundaries of hierarchical control systems.

RAND recommends five policy actions to improve the accountability system established by No Child Left Behind.

This paper analyzes the effect of an accountability system in the Brazilian college market. For each discipline, colleges were assigned a grade that depended on the scores of their students on the ENC, an annual mandatory exam. Those grades were then disclosed to the public, giving applicants information about college quality. The system also established rewards and penalties based on the colleges’ grades. I find that the ENC had a substantial effect on different measures of college quality, such as faculty education and the proportion of full-time faculty. The detailed information from this unique dataset and the fact that the ENC started being required for different disciplines in different years allow me to control for time-specific effects, thus minimizing the bias caused by policy endogeneity. Indeed, I find strong evidence on the importance of controlling for time-specific effects: estimates of the impact of the ENC on college quality more than double when I do not take those effects into account. The ENC also affects positively the ratio between applicants and vacancies, and it decreases the faculty and the entering class sizes. The results suggest that its introduction fostered competition and favored colleges entering the market.