Policy Narratives of Accountability and Social-Emotional Learning

Abstract

The paradigm of test-based accountability has been a dominant force for decades, yet some argue that we have recently witnessed a dramatic change in the key beliefs influencing educational policy. To understand the extent of this transformation, we investigated the policy narrative supporting the adoption of a multiple measure accountability system in California’s CORE Districts. Our data revealed a narrative integrating key beliefs about knowledge, accountability, and social-emotional learning. This narrative continues the major themes of the previous accountability paradigm, but with two notable differences regarding the use of measurement data and role of social-emotional learning.