The Interrelationship of State-Mandated Accountability Standards, Organizational Learning, and Continuous Improvement in United States High Schools

PIs propose to address the question of how external demands and internal processes combine to produce sustained improvement in productivity in three school districts in Minnesota, North Carolina and Iowa. Five high schools will form the core of an intensive longitudinal case study. Two are in a state with a long history of strong state mandates for accountability for student achievement; two are in a state identified as having weak state mandates; the fifth in a state with no state-mandated accountability. All districts, however, are strongly supportive of improved school practices to increase student achievement. Once schools are identified and school baseline data is gathered, researchers will document each school's context and history of standards adoption and conduct longitudinal process improvement efforts via interviews, focus groups and previously developed survey instruments. Longitudinal analysis will be used to draw preliminary conclusions regarding the research questions and to provide a rich case history to support interpretation; quantitative data will be used to relate school culture and practices to performance on state and district achievement tests.

In light of nationwide interest in school accountability, it seems especially important to gather well-grounded empirical data on school practices and the factors affecting them, and to test their impact on student performance, the more so as little published research examines the way in which school culture and practices might affect the impact of state-imposed standards on student achievement. The PIs responded to questions regarding their instruments and construct validity, and also provided additional discussion of their qualitative methodology.