Download or read book The Myth of Accountability written by Eric S. Glover and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: School improvement that is reliant on accountability is a myth based upon falsehoods and wrong assumptions. Public educations' increased dependence on this foundation for school reform and change has failed both students and teachers. The fact remains that people who create education policy do not understand what is best for individual students and classrooms. Their devised curriculum standards are, in actuality, curriculum limits that prevent students from creating successful personal and academic futures because they thwart any natural learning exploration. As such, these market-inspired, externally-motivated standards limit higher-level learning. Instead of treating students and teachers as subjects to be actively engaged in learning, accountability systems treat students and teachers like objects to be manipulated by training. By presenting the lead-teach-learn triad, Eric Glover's The Myth of Accountability discusses the pitfalls of accountability systems in schools, while also investigating how schools have somehow managed to improve in spite of their negative influences. In order to evolve school reform, Glover introduces the concept of developmental empowerment in order to frame how school participants must view themselves as perpetually changing learners and systematically update school reform. Through open inquiry, Glover encourages educators to challenge the standardization and accountability practices that limit children's futures.

Download or read book The Myth of Accountability written by Claire Fontaine and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is an ongoing tension in the American public education system between the values of excellence, equity, and a sustained commitment to efficiency. Accountability has emerged as a framework in education reform that promises to promote and balance all three values. Yet, this frame is often contested due to disagreements over the role of incentives and penalties in achieving desirable change, and concerns that the proposed mechanisms will have significant unintended consequences that outweigh potential benefits. More fundamentally, there is widespread disagreement over how to quantify excellence and equity, if it is even possible to do so. Accountability rhetoric echoes a broader turn toward data-driven decision-making and resource allocation across sectors. As a tool of power, accountability processes shift authority and control away from professional educators and toward policymakers, bureaucrats, and test makers. The construct of accountability is predicated on several assumptions. First, it privileges quantification and statistical analysis as ways of knowing and is built on a long history of standardized testing and data collection. Second, it takes learning to be both measurable and the product of instruction, an empiricist perspective descended from John Locke and the doctrine that knowledge is derived primarily from experience. Third, it holds that schools, rather than families, neighborhoods, communities, or society at large, are fundamentally responsible for student performance. This premise lacks a solid evidentiary basis and is closely related to the ideology of meritocracy. Finally, efforts to achieve accountability presume that market-based solutions can effectively protect the interests of society's most vulnerable, another controversial assumption. The accountability movement reflects the application of free market economics to public education, a legacy of the Chicago School of Economics in the post-World War II era. As a set of policies it was instantiated in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, reauthorized as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002, and reinforced by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. Teaching and learning are increasingly measured and quantified to enable analysis of the relationship between inputs (e.g., funding) and outputs (e.g., student performance). As has been true in other sectors when data-driven surveillance and assessment practices are introduced, outcomes are not always as expected. It is unclear whether this data push will promote equality of opportunity, merely document inequality, or perhaps even increase racial and socioeconomic segregation. Furthermore, little is understood about the costs of increased assessment on the health and success of students and teachers, externalities that are rarely measured or considered in the march to accountability. States will need to generate stakeholder buy-in and think carefully about the metrics they include in their accountability formulas in order to balance mandates for accountability, the benefits that accrue to students from preserving teacher autonomy and professionalism, the social good of equal opportunity, and public calls for transparency and innovation.

Download or read book The Myth of Choice written by Kent Greenfield and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-15 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freedom of choice is at the core of the American story. But what if choice is fake?Americans are fixated on the idea of choice. Our political theory is based on the consent of the governed. Our legal system is built upon the argument that people freely make choices and bear responsibility for them. And what slogan could better express the heart of our consumer culture than "Have it your way"?In this provocative book, Kent Greenfield poses unsettling questions about the choices we make. What if they are more constrained and limited than we like to think? If we have less free will than we realize, what are the implications for us as individuals and for our society? To uncover the answers, Greenfield taps into scholarship on topics ranging from brain science to economics, political theory to sociology. His discoveries—told through an entertaining array of news events, personal anecdotes, crime stories, and legal decisions—confirm that many factors, conscious and unconscious, limit our free will. Worse, by failing to perceive them we leave ourselves open to manipulation. But Greenfield offers useful suggestions to help us become better decision makers as individuals, and to ensure that in our laws and public policy we acknowledge the complexity of choice.

Download or read book B State written by Mark Samuel and published by Greenleaf Book Group. This book was released on 2018-10-16 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transforming Business, Organizational Culture, and Self In business and life, there are often moments when one simply can't seem to find a way forward. Searching in the past for solutions to persistent problems results in frustration and confusion. Issues in corporate teamwork and individual relationships can feel overwhelming and even insurmountable. There’s a lack of control and a sense of being stuck. B State provides a clear roadmap from point A to point B to rapidly achieve measurable, breakthrough results. It’s about a true transformation that removes old mindsets and silos, while replacing inefficient behaviors with desired habits to quickly create the highest performing culture for groundbreaking business outcomes. Equipped with over 30 years of professional and academic expertise, author, speaker, and change agent Mark Samuel helps companies (and the individuals that comprise them) achieve their B State, enabling them to make the necessary changes they didn’t think were possible. His strategies for finding and enacting solutions to complex challenges use real life examples to help readers embrace accountability and envision their success in order to achieve the transformation they need. This book focuses readers on where they want to go, and it helps them get there fast. ​Written for business executives, managers, supervisors, and leaders at all levels, this is a book about how to not just do business but also live life. It brings about the dynamic forward launch readers are looking for, creating results that are both unprecedented and sustainable.

Download or read book No More Excuses written by Sam Silverstein and published by Sound Wisdom. This book was released on 2015-01-20 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accountability is not a way of doing. Accountability is a way of thinking. Those who achieve greatness know true accountability makes all the difference between success and failure. Based on extensive interviews with accountable leaders—from Fortune 500 CEOs to Hall of Fame athletes—No More Excuses identifies the five accountabilities of successful people and organizations. These tenets encourage accountability in others and performance at the highest level. When you willingly accept and embrace the five accountabilities, you encourage accountability in others and empower your teams to achieve at the highest level. The result is an organization focused on its fundamental values and committed, at the individual level, to achieving critical strategic goals. Whether you are a business owner, a top executive, or a team leader, accountability starts with you and trickles down to everyone else. If you want to build an organization that achieves its goals and beats the competition it is time for No More Excuses.

Download or read book Counting the Refugees written by Barbara E. Harrell-Bond and published by . This book was released on 1991* with total page 10 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Myths of Measurement and Meritocracy written by J. M. Beach and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the idea of educational accountability in higher education, which has become a new secular gospel. But do accountability policies actually make colleges better? What if educational accountability tools don't actually measure what they're supposed to? What if accountability data isn't valid, or worse, what if it's meaningless? What if administrators don't know how to use accountability tools or correctly analyze the problematic data these tools produce? What if we can't measure, let alone accurately assess, what matters most with teaching or student learning. What if students don't learn much in college? What if higher education was never designed to produce student learning? What if college doesn't help most students, either personally or economically? What if higher education isn't meritocratic, actually exacerbates inequality, and makes the lives of disadvantaged students even worse? This book will answer these questions with a wide, interdisciplinary range of the latest scientific research.

Download or read book The Myth of Sex Addiction written by David J. Ley and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-07-10 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The media today is filled with powerful men in trouble for their sexual behaviors, and invariably, they are diagnosed as sexual addicts. Since Adam first hid his nakedness from God and pointed the finger at Eve, men have struggled to take responsibility for their sexuality. Over the past three decades, these behaviors have come to reflect not a moral failing, but instead, evidence of an ill-defined disease, that of "sexual addiction." The concept of sexual addiction is a controversial one because it is based on questionable research and subjective moral judgments. Labeling these behaviors as sex addiction asserts a false, dangerous myth that undermines personal responsibility. Not only does this epidemic of sex addiction excuses mislabel male sexuality as dangerous and unhealthy, but it destroys our ability to hold people accountable for their behaviors. By labeling males as weak and powerless before the onslaught and churning tide of lust, we take away those things that men should live up to: personal responsibility; integrity; self-control; independence; accountability; self-motivation; honor; respect for self and others. In The Myth of Sex Addiction, Ley presents the history and questionable science underlying this alleged disorder, exposing the moral and cultural judgments that are embedded in the concept, as well as the significant economic factors that drive the label of sex addiction in clinical practice and the popular media. Ley outlines how this label represents a social attack on many forms of sexuality--male sexuality in particular--as well as presenting the difficulty this label creates in holding people responsible for their sexual behaviors. Going against current assumptions and trends, Ley debunks the idea that sex addiction is real, or at least that it is as widespread as it appears to be. Instead, he suggests that the high-sex behaviors of some men is something that has been tacitly condoned for countless years and is only now labeled as a disorder as men are being held accountable to the same rules that have been applied to women. He suggests we should expect men to take responsibility for sexual choices, rather than supporting an approach that labels male sexual desire as a "demonic force" that must be resisted, feared, treated, and exorcised.

Download or read book Elements of Effective Governance written by Kathe Callahan and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2006-09-29 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elements of Effective Governance: Measurement, Accountability and Participation is one of the first books to explore the relationship between accountability, government performance, and public participation. It discusses two main assumptions: greater accountability leads to better performance; and the more the public is involved in the measu

Download or read book Things We Didn t Talk About When I Was a Girl A Memoir written by Jeannie Vanasco and published by Tin House Books. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Editors’ Choice and Best Book of the Year at TIME, Esquire, Amazon, Kirkus, and Electric Literature Jeannie Vanasco has had the same nightmare since she was a teenager. It is always about him: one of her closest high school friends, a boy named Mark. A boy who raped her. When her nightmares worsen, Jeannie decides—after fourteen years of silence—to reach out to Mark. He agrees to talk on the record and meet in person. Jeannie details her friendship with Mark before and after the assault, asking the brave and urgent question: Is it possible for a good person to commit a terrible act? Jeannie interviews Mark, exploring how rape has impacted his life as well as her own. Unflinching and courageous, Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl is part memoir, part true crime record, and part testament to the strength of female friendships—a recounting and reckoning that will inspire us to ask harder questions, push towards deeper understanding, and continue a necessary and long overdue conversation.

Download or read book The Myth of Achievement Tests written by James J. Heckman and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Achievement tests play an important role in modern societies. They are used to evaluate schools, to assign students to tracks within schools, and to identify weaknesses in student knowledge. The GED is an achievement test used to grant the status of high school graduate to anyone who passes it. GED recipients currently account for 12 percent of all high school credentials issued each year in the United States. But do achievement tests predict success in life? The Myth of Achievement Tests shows that achievement tests like the GED fail to measure important life skills. James J. Heckman, John Eric Humphries, Tim Kautz, and a group of scholars offer an in-depth exploration of how the GED came to be used throughout the United States and why our reliance on it is dangerous. Drawing on decades of research, the authors show that, while GED recipients score as well on achievement tests as high school graduates who do not enroll in college, high school graduates vastly outperform GED recipients in terms of their earnings, employment opportunities, educational attainment, and health. The authors show that the differences in success between GED recipients and high school graduates are driven by character skills. Achievement tests like the GED do not adequately capture character skills like conscientiousness, perseverance, sociability, and curiosity. These skills are important in predicting a variety of life outcomes. They can be measured, and they can be taught. Using the GED as a case study, the authors explore what achievement tests miss and show the dangers of an educational system based on them. They call for a return to an emphasis on character in our schools, our systems of accountability, and our national dialogue. Contributors Eric Grodsky, University of Wisconsin–Madison Andrew Halpern-Manners, Indiana University Bloomington Paul A. LaFontaine, Federal Communications Commission Janice H. Laurence, Temple University Lois M. Quinn, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Pedro L. Rodríguez, Institute of Advanced Studies in Administration John Robert Warren, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Download or read book Holding accountability Accountable written by Mary Molly Lockwood and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meritocracy is often mentioned in discussions of social inequality, stratification, oppression and "White Privilege," but it is seldom investigated as to its ubiquitous role as a dominant inaugurator of social inequality in America today. Emanating from the central liberal concept that opportunities to compete for resources and goods are fair and equal for everyone, the American social justice ideal of "meritocratic equality" masks the realities of group determinants in relation to the anatomies of "hegemonies of power" in American culture. Disingenuously deflecting inequality issues from institutional inefficacy onto individual inadequacies and obfuscating fundamental issues of injustice, America's "meritocratic myth" camouflages meritocratic individualism's role as a catalytic agent behind group differential practices in America's social, political and economic architecture. This discursive analysis critiques the puissant connections between meritocratic individualism (meritocracy) and the conceptions and practices of dominant "Americanized" identities, ideology and institutions. It particularly brings into focus the ways meritocracy legitimizes practices of social inequality, especially within the institution of public education. Meritocracy is examined through the lens of myth, as an abstracted ideology whose "universal" tenets have become habituated through uncontested religious, social, psychological and historical processes, which this paper explores. Critical Race Theory provides the analytical framework to examine supposedly "neutral" principles of the "fair" and "good" society in relationship to widely accepted principles of merit, ability, performance and "deservedness." In particular, education's "accountability-consciousness" is deconstructed to expose this politically motivated, euphemistic ploy in perpetuating surveillance/containment practices that recreate racial, social and cultural stratifications, while deftly casting pathology onto the individual, rather than institutional policy and practice.

Download or read book The Myths of Measurement and Meritocracy written by J. M. Beach and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the idea of educational accountability in higher education, which has become a new secular gospel. But do accountability policies actually make colleges better? What if educational accountability tools don’t actually measure what they’re supposed to? What if accountability data isn’t valid, or worse, what if it’s meaningless? What if administrators don’t know how to use accountability tools or correctly analyze the problematic data these tools produce? What if we can’t measure, let alone accurately assess, what matters most with teaching or student learning. What if students don’t learn much in college? What if higher education was never designed to produce student learning? What if college doesn’t help most students, either personally or economically? What if higher education isn’t meritocratic, actually exacerbates inequality, and makes the lives of disadvantaged students even worse? This book will answer these questions with a wide, interdisciplinary range of the latest scientific research.

Download or read book Propeller written by Tanner Corbridge and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-06-25 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The newest addition to Partners In Leadership's accountability series that began with the classic The Oz Principle. The Oz Principle has sold more than a million copies since it debuted in 1994, establishing it as the go-to reference on workplace accountability throughout the world. By embracing its practical and invaluable advice, tens of thousands of companies have improved their organizational accountability -- the key to achieving and sustaining exceptional results. Now, the team at Partners In Leadership is applying thirty years of proven success to a whole new concept: Propeller. This book presents a modern take on accountability, while remaining faithful to the elegantly simple premise: When people take personal ownership of their organization's priorities and accept responsibility for their own performance, they become more engaged and perform at a higher level. With all new examples and stories, Propeller builds on the The Oz Principle's legacy to inspire the next generation of readers to tap the incredible power of personal, team, and organizational accountability.

Download or read book The Theory of Accountability written by Sam Silverstein and published by Sound Wisdom. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: E=mc2 You may think you know what this familiar formula means, but until you read Sam Silverstein’s breakthrough book, you will not know its true power or its potential. This is the Accountability Formula™, and it forms the heart of the Theory of Accountability™. Silverstein’s Theory of Accountability has nothing to do with physics, the speed of light, or the relationship between space and time. It has everything to do with personal and organizational growth, and with establishing the kind of leadership in your own life that makes excuses a thing of the past…and inspires true commitment from others. The Theory of Accountability states: Our lived EXPERIENCE is the direct result of our MINDSET and our COMMITMENT SQUARED. Silverstein’s new book examines each of these critical elements in depth, and shows you how to leverage the power of accountability to create a sustainable high-performance life and organization. E stands for Experience. Our experience is the results: the outcomes we achieve in our life, in our business, and everywhere else. It is what we produce. Our experience impacts the lives of everyone we come in contact with. The problem is, all too often, our experience is erratic, random, unplanned, and dysfunctional--with results to match. M stands for Mindset. The accountable mindset is based on a conscious decision to embrace possibility rather than fear. When decisions are driven by fear, our experience and the experience of everyone we come in contact with suffers. On the other hand, when decisions are driven by a set of beliefs that are based on valuing people, and on a foundation of abundance rather than scarcity, our experience improves. C2 stands for Commitment Squared. How do we ensure that our mindset is driven by possibility and abundance, rather than by fear and scarcity? By focusing on our ability to make, keep, and expand specific commitments. There is truly awesome power in commitment. The quality of the results you achieve is always based on two things: how committed you are to people, and how committed you are to your mindset and your core beliefs. These are the two commitments of the accountable person. When both kinds of commitments are in full play, when you are all in, you are living to your full potential. Such commitments are like compound interest, because they produce increasingly greater results over time. Sam’s latest book offers leaders a proven system for taking control of your life and transforming yourself and your organization…by harnessing the awesome power of accountability.

Download or read book Inspiring Accountability in the Workplace written by Elaina Noell and published by . This book was released on 2019-04-14 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book How Did That Happen written by Roger Connors and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-07-26 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times bestseller that provides a simple, proven approach to improve accountability and the bottom line. The economy crashes, the government misfires, businesses fail, leaders don't lead, managers don't manage, and people don't follow through, leaving us asking, "How did that happen?" Surprises caused by a lack of personal accountability plague almost every organization today, from the political arena to large and small businesses. How Did That Happen? offers a proven way to eliminate these nasty surprises, gain an unbeatable competitive edge, and enhance performance by holding others accountable the positive, principled way. As the experts on workplace accountability and the authors of The Oz Principle, Roger Connors and Tom Smith tackle the next crucial step everyone can take, whether working as a manager, supervisor, CEO, or individual performer: creating greater accountability in all the people on whom you depend.