New book explores impact of education accountability systems

March 27, 2013

infrastructureaccount_223 Driven by test-based accountability, schools are awash in data.  These new accountability systems have forced educators to respond to policy in ways they have not before. To understand the extent of these changes, we must look across the K-12 educational system and into the expanding field of for- and non-profit educational reformers.

A new book edited by Michigan State University faculty, The Infrastructure of Accountability: Data Use and the Transformation of American Education, lays out a conceptual framework for comprehending large-scale, performance-based accountability systems across the entire education spectrum. The co-editors are Dorothea Anagnostopoulos and Rebecca Jacobsen, both of MSU’s Department of Teacher Education, and Stacey A. Rutledge, associate professor of educational leadership and policy at Florida State University.

By incorporating essays from leading scholars on the subject, the book offers bold, fresh perspectives and explores hidden infrastructures that support the production, flow and use of data in education – which is reshaping American education today.

The book is now available for purchase through Harvard Education Press.