Instructional Accountability.

After commenting on the increasing interest being shown in educational accountability, the speaker focuses on two questions--with the varied opinions about accountability, is it possible to establish an acceptable meaning of the term, and what are the steps in the process for implementing a model for accountability? Accountability is defined as a "logical and systematic method for collecting information of educational growth of pupils K-12 (or any target area thereof) so that educators may retain, redo, or eliminate educational programs being taught." The steps for the model are 1) start small, 2) identify faculty and organization, 3) list concerns of target area, 4) conduct needs assessment, 5) agree on goals of quality education, 6) state hypotheses, 7) determine product evaluation, 8) determine collection and analysis technique, 9) determine program for target area, 10) construct program objectives for target area, 11) construct instructional objectives for the target program, and 12) identify acceptable baseline criteria for evaluation of instructional objectives. Two of these steps--goals for quality education, and instructional objectives--are examined in detail. Other topics considered are learning responsibility, teaching accountability, using behavioral objectives in teacher-made tests, and sources, criteria, and components of behavioral objectives. (MBM)