Innovative Public Engagement Practices and Partnerships: Lifting Stakeholder Voices in Education Accountability Policy

In 2008, due to increasing stakeholder dissatisfaction with assessment results and school report cards, South Carolina revised its 1998 Educational Accountability Act and required public engagement with stakeholders including parents/guardians, educators, business and community leaders, and taxpayers. The legislation created partnerships between SC Education Oversight Committee (EOC) and Clemson University. The project also brought together within the university the fields of Applied Sociology, Computer Science, and Educational Leadership. The project involved mixed methods using phone/web surveys with focus groups eliciting perceptions from key stakeholders and under-represented voices in the surveys. (Contains 1 endnote and 3 figures.) [This project was supported with a contract from the Education Oversight Committee of the South Carolina General Assembly.]