Abstract
This chapter describes an ambitious reform by the most populous state in the U.S.; a reform that has the potential to be a pivotal point in the nation’s school accountability movement. For the past 30 years, the U.S. has been hyper-focused on standardized testing, and all major school reforms introduced since the 1980s have utilize test scores as the primary measure of success--or failure. Initiated in 2013 and foreshadowing a similar but less ambitious national reform, “The California Way” attempts to de-emphasize testing as well as place more power and responsibility on local authorities, specifically school principals. A discussion of the political/ideological background for the reform attempts to underline the importance of its continuance and its potential impact on school reform across the U.S. The California Way and its components are examined regarding their efficacy in meeting their goals as, despite their good intentions and the reform’s great promise, these aims and the entire reform itself may prove to be too complex for effective implementation. Finally, the chapter examines possible adjustments to the role of the school leader as a result of the reform, specifically in the school leader’s ability to enact necessary change as state policies dictate.
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Notes
- 1.
Charter schools are publicly-funded private schools. Oftentimes, they are under the umbrella of a school district, but they can also exist as a single entity or as part of a group of schools. In the 2016–2017 school year, California had 1232 charter schools housing approximately 10% of the public-school population (California Department of Education 2017e, 25 October).
- 2.
The term licensed or certified are used in place of credentialed in many U.S. states.
- 3.
Thirty-two were eliminated and 13 were retained (Cabral and Chu 2013).
- 4.
California’s public schools were 54% Latino, 9% Asian, 6% Black, and 23% white in 2016–2017 school year (California Department of Education 2017d, 19 October).
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Nordgren, R.D. (2020). California, USA: “The California Way”: The Golden State’s Promise to Empower Principals and De-emphasize Testing. In: Ärlestig, H., Johansson, O. (eds) Educational Authorities and the Schools. Educational Governance Research, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38759-4_14
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