Accountability-Reporting Hurdles

It will take candor, clarity, and craftsmanship for leaders to create reports that bridge the credibility gap.

By Steve Rees

Correction: This Commentary erroneously implied that officials of the Atlanta Public Schools had knowingly misreported school data. Following media reports, the Georgia Department of Education found last year that the district had not intentionally distorted or misrepresented any data on disciplinary incidents, and no action was taken against the district. No other district data have been questioned. ( March 12, 2004 .)

right It will take candor, clarity, and craftsmanship for leaders to create reports that bridge the credibility gap.

Education leaders in many states are limping to the finish line as they report results in their annual accountability report cards. If this were a 400-meter hurdles race, some would be tripping on their own shoelaces, some would be knocking over hurdles, and few, if any, would be finishing in style.

What explains this gawky display? A mix of errors in judgment, lack of capacity, and educator resentment of the intrusion of legislators into their affairs. It is all unfolding in a climate of conflict: Federal laws, especially the No Child Left Behind Act, set the reporting hurdles higher than most state laws. Citizens' expectations of transparency and candor in school-level reporting are far higher than what most education leaders are delivering to the publics they serve. In some states, such as Illinois and Michigan, state department of education leaders are faulting local district officials for providing data that is incorrect or incomplete. Local leaders, in turn, are blaming state department higher-ups for poor-quality writing, design, and data interpretation in state-issued annual reports. This blame game is full of friction, producing much...