Journal website: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/ Manuscript received: 9/30/2017 Facebook: /EPAAA Revisions received: 1/1/2018 Twitter: @epaa_aape Accepted: 1/12/2018 education policy analysis archives A peer-reviewed, independent, open access, multilingual journal Arizona State University Volume 26 Number 11 January 29, 2018 ISSN 1068-2341 Multiple Measures Accountability Systems: A Perspective from Vermont Amy Fowler Vermont Agency of Education United States Citation: Fowler, A. (2018). Multiple perspectives accountability systems: A perspective from Vermont. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 26(11). http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.26.3642 This article is an advance publication for the Redesigning Assessment and Accountability special issue, guest-edited by Soung Bae, Jon Snyder, and Elizabeth Leisy Stosich. Abstract: In response to Bae’s (2018) Redesigning systems of school accountability: A multiple measures approach to accountability and support, this commentary expands on some key considerations for states and school districts as they seek different ways to support school improvement while also addressing the competing demands of educators, policymakers, and the public. Using examples from Vermont, the author highlights the need for: (1) states and districts to make accountability part of their core statement of values, with a focus on why certain measures are selected, not what measures are selected; and (2) reciprocal accountability through better collaborations between federal, state and local actors to identify and fund the best investments for education. Keywords: education policy; accountability; Vermont Sistemas de responsabilidad multi-perspectiva: Una perspectiva de Vermont Resumen: En respuesta a Bae’s (2018) “Rediseñando los Sistemas de Responsabilidad Escolar,” este comentario amplía algunas consideraciones clave para los estados y distritos escolares que buscan diferentes formas de apoyar la mejora escolar mientras que también abordan la competencia http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/ http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.26.3642 Education Policy Analysis Archives Vol 26 No 11 SPECIAL ISSUE 2 las demandas de los educadores, los políticos y el público. Usando ejemplos de Vermont, el autor destaca la necesidad de: (1) que los estados y distritos hagan que la rendición de cuentas sea parte de su declaración de valores central, con un enfoque en por qué se seleccionan ciertas medidas, no qué medidas se seleccionan; y (2) responsabilidad recíproca a través de mejores colaboraciones entre los actores federales, estatales y locales para identificar y financiar las mejores inversiones para la educación. Palabras clave: política educativa; responsabilidad; Vermont Sistemas de responsabilidade multi-perspectiva: Uma perspectiva de Vermont Resumo: Em resposta aos “Redesenhando Sistemas de Responsabilidade Escolar” de Bae (2018), este comentário amplia algumas considerações importantes para estados e distritos escolares que procuram diferentes maneiras de apoiar a melhoria escolar, ao mesmo tempo em que abordam as demandas dos educadores , políticos e público. Usando exemplos de Vermont, o autor destaca a necessidade de: (1) que os estados e os distritos tornem a responsabilidade parte da sua declaração básica de valores, com foco em por que certas medidas são selecionadas, e não o que medidas selecione; e (2) responsabilidade recíproca através de melhores colaborações entre atores federais, estaduais e locais para identificar e financiar os melhores investimentos para a educação. Palavras-chave: política educacional; responsabilidade; Vermont Multiple Measures Accountability Systems: A Perspective from Vermont Accountability. I’m not sure there is a word in education more rife with multiple meanings and problematic understanding. The public seeks measures of accountability to understand how well education tax dollars are being spent–most expect schools to prepare our youth for active participation in civic and economic life, but few agree on how to get there. Educators wants systems of accountability that accurately depict the complexity of their work and don’t hold them responsible for factors beyond their control. Those seeking equity worry that efforts to minimize external factors will result in perpetuating inequities and lower expectations for some. And through it all is the misplaced notion that our public education sector simply needs the right combination of carrots and sticks in order to improve educational outcomes for students. As Bae describes in Redesigning systems of school accountability: A multiple measures approach to accountability and support (2018), many states, districts and nations are striving to find different ways to address the competing demands of these varied audiences. Accountability as a Statement of Values A key component of Bae’s work (2018) is the degree to which the accountability system reflects the core values and goals of the entity engaged in the work. Ultimately, this is the struggle in choosing priorities—too many measures and the public and schools cannot focus, but in the culling to critical areas, other important aspects of schools are set aside. For example, in Vermont we have eight critical content areas but only the funding to cover assessments in 3, possibly 4. Absent federal guidelines, we still would have chosen a literacy and math assessment--these are critical for students accessing a successful future. We selected science as a third because it is required by ESSA and physical fitness because we are concerned that the emphasis on academic preparation has reduced time spent at play, in recess and in physical education and health. But we also highly value arts, social science, and world languages, technology, and the transferable skills and we can’t afford to assess those areas with current resources and we worry this will lead to an inadvertent distortion of instruction. A Perspective from Vermont 3 This article helps readers to see that strong accountability systems bring forward some, but not all, measures that describe high quality outcomes for students. At one point, I believed we could identify the “right” measures—that there would be agreement across the sector for what we should measure. Now, I see that it is far more important to help everyone understand why measures are selected, what they do and don’t tell us about school quality and the reasons why these measures are good proxies for all of the other school factors that are more challenging to quantify. Reciprocal Accountability Without a doubt, we all hope that resources allow for reciprocity between federal, state and local actors in supporting school improvement. However, this should not be interpreted as a blank check for improvement–public funds to support education are not unlimited. As Bae (2018) points out—more money isn’t always the answer; it is putting that money to good use in proven ways that leads to better outcomes. Continuing the long tradition of ESEA, ESSA pushing the greatest amount of federal dollars to the local school level—this makes a lot of sense, we want the funds to be affecting the students in schools. However, this also means that school systems have the greatest discretion over how they spend their resources and they are often constrained by local obligations. For example, one school system may be excelling in reading/language arts and quite poorly in mathematics. The school attributes the reading success to an intensive part-time reading specialist and is reluctant to divert resources to provide math support out of fear the reading would suffer if less support was available. Whether or not this is the best course of action to take is debatable, but absence an increase in funding it is a decision the local level must make. State agencies can support school systems in making better investments by looking carefully at needs assessments and linking federal spending to those needs; we need to help them think carefully about the value of each dollar. About the Author Amy Fowler Vermont Agency of Education amy.fowler@vermont.gov Dr. Amy Fowler serves as the Deputy Secretary of Education for Vermont following prior experience as a teacher, and a central office leader in several school systems across the nation. About the Guest Editors Elizabeth Leisy Stosich Fordham University estosich@fordham.edu Elizabeth Leisy Stosich is an Assistant Professor in Educational Leadership, Administration, and Policy at Fordham University. Previously, she was a Research and Policy Fellow at the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. Her research interests include education policy, assessment and accountability, school and district leadership, school improvement, and teachers’ professional learning. Soung Bae Stanford University soungb@stanford.edu mailto:amy.fowler@vermont.gov mailto:estosich@fordham.edu mailto:soungb@stanford.edu Education Policy Analysis Archives Vol 26 No 11 SPECIAL ISSUE 4 Soung Bae is a Senior Learning Specialist and UDL Innovation Studio Manager at the Schwab Learning Center at Stanford University. Formerly, she was a Senior Research and Policy Analyst at the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. Her research interests focus on school accountability, student engagement, and designing learning environments that appreciate and support learner variability. Jon Snyder Stanford University jdsnyder@stanford.edu Jon Snyder is the Executive Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE). His research interests include teacher learning, conditions that support teacher learning, and the relationships between teacher and student learning. mailto:jdsnyder@stanford.edu A Perspective from Vermont 5 SPECIAL ISSUE Redesigning Assessment and Accountability education policy analysis archives Volume 26 Number 11 January 29, 2018 ISSN 1068-2341 Readers are free to copy, display, and distribute this article, as long as the work is attributed to the author(s) and Education Policy Analysis Archives, it is distributed for non- commercial purposes only, and no alteration or transformation is made in th e work. More details of this Creative Commons license are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/. All other uses must be approved by the author(s) or EPAA. EPAA is published by the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education at Arizona State University Articles are indexed in CIRC (Clasificación Integrada de Revistas Científicas, Spain), DIALNET (Spain), Directory of Open Access Journals, EBSCO Education Research Complete, ERIC, Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), QUALIS A1 (Brazil), SCImago Journal Rank; SCOPUS, SOCOLAR (China). Please send errata notes to Audrey Amrein-Beardsley at Audrey.beardsley@asu.edu Join EPAA’s Facebook community at https://www.facebook.com/EPAAAAPE and Twitter feed @epaa_aape. http://www.doaj.org/ mailto:Audrey.beardsley@asu.edu https://www.facebook.com/EPAAAAPE Education Policy Analysis Archives Vol 26 No 11 SPECIAL ISSUE 6 education policy analysis archives editorial board Lead Editor: Audrey Amrein-Beardsley (Arizona State University) Consulting Editor: Gustavo E. Fischman (Arizona State University) Associate Editors: David Carlson, Lauren Harris, Eugene Judson, Mirka Koro-Ljungberg, Scott Marley, Iveta Silova, Maria Teresa Tatto (Arizona State University) Cristina Alfaro San Diego State University Gene V Glass Arizona State University Susan L. Robertson Bristol University, UK Gary Anderson New York University Ronald Glass University of California, Santa Cruz Gloria M. Rodriguez University of California, Davis Michael W. Apple University of Wisconsin, Madison Jacob P. K. Gross University of Louisville R. Anthony Rolle University of Houston Jeff Bale OISE, University of Toronto, Canada Eric M. Haas WestEd A. G. Rud Washington State University Aaron Bevanot SUNY Albany Julian Vasquez Heilig California State University, Sacramento Patricia Sánchez University of University of Texas, San Antonio David C. 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Waitoller University of Illinois, Chicago Matthew Di Carlo Albert Shanker Institute Sarah Lubienski Indiana University Larisa Warhol University of Connecticut Sherman Dorn Arizona State University William J. Mathis University of Colorado, Boulder John Weathers University of Colorado, Colorado Springs Michael J. Dumas University of California, Berkeley Michele S. Moses University of Colorado, Boulder Kevin Welner University of Colorado, Boulder Kathy Escamilla University of Colorado, Boulder Julianne Moss Deakin University, Australia Terrence G. Wiley Center for Applied Linguistics Melissa Lynn Freeman Adams State College Sharon Nichols University of Texas, San Antonio John Willinsky Stanford University Rachael Gabriel University of Connecticut Eric Parsons University of Missouri-Columbia Jennifer R. Wolgemuth University of South Florida Amy Garrett Dikkers University of North Carolina, Wilmington Amanda U. Potterton University of Kentucky Kyo Yamashiro Claremont Graduate University A Perspective from Vermont 7 archivos analíticos de políticas educativas consejo editorial Editor Consultor: Gustavo E. Fischman (Arizona State University) Editores Asociados: Armando Alcántara Santuario (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), Jason Beech (Universidad de San Andrés), Angelica Buendia (Metropolitan Autonomous University), Ezequiel Gomez Caride (Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina), Antonio Luzon (Universidad de Granada), Angelica Buendia (Metropolitan Autonomous University), José Luis Ramírez (Universidad de Sonora) Claudio Almonacid Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación, Chile Juan Carlos González Faraco Universidad de Huelva, España Miriam Rodríguez Vargas Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, México Miguel Ángel Arias Ortega Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México María Clemente Linuesa Universidad de Salamanca, España José Gregorio Rodríguez Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia Xavier Besalú Costa Universitat de Girona, España Jaume Martínez Bonafé Universitat de València, España Mario Rueda Beltrán Instituto de Investigaciones sobre la Universidad y la Educación, UNAM, México Xavier Bonal Sarro Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, España Alejandro Márquez Jiménez Instituto de Investigaciones sobre la Universidad y la Educación, UNAM, México José Luis San Fabián Maroto Universidad de Oviedo, España Antonio Bolívar Boitia Universidad de Granada, España María Guadalupe Olivier Tellez, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, México Jurjo Torres Santomé, Universidad de la Coruña, España José Joaquín Brunner Universidad Diego Portales, Chile Miguel Pereyra Universidad de Granada, España Yengny Marisol Silva Laya Universidad Iberoamericana, México Damián Canales Sánchez Instituto Nacional para la Evaluación de la Educación, México Mónica Pini Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina Ernesto Treviño Ronzón Universidad Veracruzana, México Gabriela de la Cruz Flores Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Omar Orlando Pulido Chaves Instituto para la Investigación Educativa y el Desarrollo Pedagógico (IDEP) Ernesto Treviño Villarreal Universidad Diego Portales Santiago, Chile Marco Antonio Delgado Fuentes Universidad Iberoamericana, México Paula Razquin Universidad de San Andrés, Argentina Antoni Verger Planells Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, España Inés Dussel, DIE-CINVESTAV, México javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/819') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/820') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/4276') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/1609') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/825') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/797') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/555') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/823') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/798') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/814') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/2703') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/801') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/816') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/826') javascript:openRTWindow('http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/about/editorialTeamBio/802') Education Policy Analysis Archives Vol 26 No 11 SPECIAL ISSUE 8 arquivos analíticos de políticas educativas conselho editorial Editor Consultor: Gustavo E. Fischman (Arizona State University) Editores Associados: Geovana Mendonça Lunardi Mendes (Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina), Marcia Pletsch, Sandra Regina Sales (Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro) Almerindo Afonso Universidade do Minho Portugal Alexandre Fernandez Vaz Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil José Augusto Pacheco Universidade do Minho, Portugal Rosanna Maria Barros Sá Universidade do Algarve Portugal Regina Célia Linhares Hostins Universidade do Vale do Itajaí, Brasil Jane Paiva Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil Maria Helena Bonilla Universidade Federal da Bahia Brasil Alfredo Macedo Gomes Universidade Federal de Pernambuco Brasil Paulo Alberto Santos Vieira Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso, Brasil Rosa Maria Bueno Fischer Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil Jefferson Mainardes Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa, Brasil Fabiany de Cássia Tavares Silva Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil Alice Casimiro Lopes Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil Jader Janer Moreira Lopes Universidade Federal Fluminense e Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brasil António Teodoro Universidade Lusófona Portugal Suzana Feldens Schwertner Centro Universitário Univates Brasil Debora Nunes Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil Lílian do Valle Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil Flávia Miller Naethe Motta Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil Alda Junqueira Marin Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, Brasil Alfredo Veiga-Neto Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil Dalila Andrade Oliveira Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brasil