Parents' Perceptions of School Accountability: A Case Study of an Urban School District

Includes bibliographical references (pages 122-131).School accountability under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 has influenced school leadership to use standardized assessment metrics in student's academic performance coupled with methods of decision making informed by such data as a means for increasing student achievement. Success in a school's plan to increase student achievement can be related to many factors, one factor sited frequently is the ability of school leadership to incorporate and involve all stakeholders in school reform practices like data driven decision making (DDDM). The review of literature in DDDM has very little empirical evidence indicating how parents as a stakeholder are involved in DDDM. The purpose of this case study was to use extant data from a large urban, school district in the Western United States to gain a better understanding of three specific research questions focused on: (a) parents perceptions and factors they use to assess school accountability; (b) data parents use and value to inform their decision making for educating their child; and (c) parents perception and involvement with schools as a professional learning community (PLC). Four findings emerged from the analysis of the extant data: (a) parents misunderstood the use of standardized testing data; (b) parents valued educational practices focusing on the concept of the whole child; (c) parents lacked understanding about how to become involved in their child's education; and (d) the need to redefine the meaning of collaboration between school and parents