From our May 2015 issue: Accountability School Reform in Comparative Perspective

Accountability School Reform in Comparative Perspective

1. Alan DiGaetano1

1. ¹City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

1. Alan DiGaetano, Department of Political Science, Baruch College, City University of New York, One Bernard Baruch Way, New York, NY 10010, USA. Email:alan.digaetano@baruch.cuny.edu

Abstract

School reform politics in England and the United States over the last quarter century has revolved largely around the question of performance-based accountability. Accountability school reform in both countries has entailed standardization of curricula and assessment and the spread in the use of market mechanisms in school governance. To explain how these accountability reforms have retooled local governing institutions in ways that have reduced their autonomy and lessened their capacity to administer local school systems, this article applies the analytical framework of urban governing cycles to a comparative study of school reform politics in Bristol, England, and Boston, Massachusetts.

• school reform
 
• urban politics
 
• urban governing cycle
• • http://uar.sagepub.com/content/51/3/315.abstract