Superintendent perspectives of public school accountability and local control of schools

The Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) transferred flexibility for accountability rules to states to control following the national accountability era of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The interdependent relationships of structural linkages between state and local school entities need examination for understanding how best to align the systemic linkages for accountability based on the measures of performance. The purpose of the study was to explore and understand school district leaders’ perspectives about school accountability in Texas based on the state’s recent shift towards a shared accountability system. This phenomenological study was explored through discussions with three superintendents and three deputy superintendents. The following three research question guided the study: (a) What are perspectives of district leaders within the shift from a state-imposed accountability system to shared accountability in Texas? (b) How would district leaders of urban districts define the movement toward local control? (c) How do school leaders envision a plan of action for shared accountability? The researcher utilized a purposeful sampling strategy to select three urban school districts. The snowball sampling was used to gain participants. All interviews were semi-structured, tape-recorded, and lasted between 30 and 60 minutes. The perspectives and lived experiences of the participants led the narrative in supporting the creation of three themes. The three themes that evolved through the data relating to how the six district leaders perceive, experience and understand the shift in the accountability system, impact on student performance, effect on policy and governance, and desired shift in curriculum and instruction. Implications for practice evolving from this study extend to researchers, superintendents, trustees, and district stakeholders. Recommendations for further research include: (a) expanding the target population to include a more diverse superintendent demographic and differing types of school districts; (b) examining the interactivity between the state and district leaders to influence policymaking in generating greater shared accountability, responsibility, and autonomy in school districts; and (c) investigating how superintendents understand developing systemic capacity to provide quality resources and effectively organize their school districts as they experience shifts in school accountability system across the multiple channels and among stakeholders. Additional recommendations and implications appear in Chapter 5.Educational Leadership and Polic