Educational accountability in EFL contexts: Providing remedies

Establishing high standards for educational accountability and informing those not already familiar with the basic components of a strong accountability system is a fresh avenue in EFL context, particularly in Iran, where the perceived shortcomings of English learning in the public sector are evident. The present mixed methods study used educational accountability as a theoretical framework to determine the level to which its elements (Goals, Performance Indicators, Design Decisions, Consequences, Communication, Support, and System Evaluation, Monitoring, and Improvement) differ in Iranian high schools and English language institutes when concerning school principals, English teachers, parents, and students. To this end, 300 EFL learners, 120 parents, 100 English teachers, and 60 principals were selected to complete the piloted and validated educational accountability questionnaires. The reliability of all questionnaires was around 0.95. To better understand the results of the questionnaires, 86 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The results of the t-tests indicated a statistically significant difference between the levels of accountability in both EFL contexts. The only exception was the aspect of Communication, which was almost the same in both educational contexts. The results of the semi-structured interviews also confirmed those of the questionnaires. Several remedies were offered by the researchers of the study. The findings of this study suggest that the EFL agents and policymakers can take advantage of educational accountability systems.