Accountability-Based Reform: The Impact on Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students

7. Accountability to Parents

7 AccountabilitytoParents Accountability reform for education is, in a general sense, undertaken on behalf of the taxpaying public. Elementary and secondary education is funded largely through public revenue, and as stakeholders, taxpayers are interested in the efficacy of public education. Some education reforms refine this concept of accountability to the public even more specifically: accountability to parents. Thus far in this book, the discussion of accountability has been in terms of what is measured (student proficiency on content area standards) and who is evaluated (students, teachers, and schools). This chapter views accountability from the other end of the transaction. What options do parents have in response to the results obtained in accountability reforms? To be accountable to someone or something implies that there is a responsibility not only to measure success but also to ultimately succeed. If the school system is not successful in its goals to educate students, then accountability reform gives parents a course of action to follow. Chapter 7 considers how accountability reform provides parents with leverage for implementing change in the services their children receive. School choice is the primary option for parents under current accountability reform . The chapter begins with a discussion of the role of school choice in the United States and its role in U.S. accountability reforms. School choice is not 113 114 Chapter 7 a new policy, but its inclusion in NCLB means that it is now integrated into the larger school accountability framework. School choice, however, has only a tangential fit with the overall goals of ESEA, in general, and IDEA, in particular . In this context, what does school choice offer for parents of students who are deaf or hard of hearing? School Choice Policies School choice has had a long and controversial history in the United States (Colvin, 2004; National Education Association, 2006). Traditional school enrollment policies limit attendance to schools within a geographical boundary , usually based on where families live. School choice refers to policies that allow parents flexibility in where their children go to school. Depending on the specifications of the choice policy, parents may have the option to send their children to another public school within the district (interdistrict transfer) or to a private school within district boundaries (Tice, Chapman, Princiotta, & Bielick, 2006). The essential principle behind school choice is that students will have better educational opportunities if their parents have more options as to where their children attend school. This principle is similar to a free-market economy, where consumers select options that best fit their needs. If a product is of low quality, consumers will stop selecting that option. Applied to education, schools that do not facilitate academic success for their students will see parents choosing to enroll their children elsewhere. The discussions around school choice bring many critical issues to the forefront of what will lead to academic success for students. Cities with comprehensive school choice programs, also known as voucher programs, have been started in a handful of locations, including Wisconsin (Milwaukee), Ohio (Cleveland), Vermont, Maine, and Washington, DC (federally funded by the DC School Choice Incentive Act of 2003). These voucher programs are designed to provide additional educational opportunities for low-income students. In the voucher programs, parents are given a “credit” for the cost of educating their child in the local school. The parent can then take that money and use it to pay for private school tuition, an expense often out of reach for low-income families. Advocates see school choice as a way for disadvantaged children to have access to the benefits of private education. Critics of school choice or voucher programs say that moving children out of public schools Accountability to Parents 115 undermines the educational efforts in local communities and that it seeks to benefit private schools more than students themselves. Amid the controversy, additional cities that have initiated voucher programs have been sued by opposition groups and are awaiting decisions within their respective state courts (Alliance for School Choice, 2007). School choice plays a supporting role in the current accountability legislation . Although a full version of school choice (i.e., one with vouchers for privateschools )waspartofanearlyconceptualizationofNCLB,thefinalNCLB legislation offers school choice in a more limited context (Hess & Finn, 2004; Hochschild, 2003). Choice under NCLB does not include vouchers to private schools, but offers parents of Title I students options within their public school districts. (Vouchers for private school education may be reintroduced in a...