Inquiry and Accountability in Professional Development Schools

Abstract

To provide a deeper understanding of issues related to collaborative reconstruction and simultaneous renewal, the author provides a historical perspective of professional development schools (PDSs) and an overview of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education PDS standards and assessment process, with a focus on inquiry and accountability within PDSs. A series of vignettes provides examples of inquiry and accountability across diverse PDS settings. Issues surrounding assessment and quality assurance and the challenges to collaborative inquiry are illustrated through the vignettes. This discussion of PDSs, inquiry, and accountability is placed within the context of accountability as mandated by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation (2001). The author makes a contrast between PDSs that hold themselves accountable for the growth of all educators and students through their engagement in assessment and collaborative inquiry to transform teaching and learning practices and the NCLB mandates that resulted in a more narrowly defined and less complex realization of accountability.