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Accountability Policies and Their Effects

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International Handbook of Educational Policy

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE,volume 13))

Abstract

Accountability in education is a contested and complex concept. Despite this, some form of accountability is as inevitable as it is important. Some (Cotter, 2000, p. 12) see it as “the engine of policy”. Given the growing understanding of the crucial importance of education for the future prosperity of their countries, governments are looking for ways of exercising central control over schools. As the (2001b, p. 51) has recently pointed out, “Procedures for setting a central curriculum, for inspecting schools or for assessing pupils and publishing results at a school level are all pressures that encourage school managers to conform to a well-defined set of norms.”

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Tasmania, Australia

    Bill Mulford

Authors
  1. Bill Mulford
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, ON, Canada

    Nina Bascia , Alister Cumming , Kenneth Leithwood  & David Livingstone , ,  & 

  2. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Amanda Datnow

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© 2005 Springer

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Mulford, B. (2005). Accountability Policies and Their Effects. In: Bascia, N., Cumming, A., Datnow, A., Leithwood, K., Livingstone, D. (eds) International Handbook of Educational Policy. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3201-3_14

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