AMERICAN EDUCATOR - SUMMER 2010 - Reforming Education: Market Mechanisms and Accountability

Oct 15, 2026

Reforming education requires more than frequent pedagogical changes, new technologies, testing, and governance tweaks; sustained improvement comes from incremental effort across years. The text argues that accountability alone cannot be a “silver bullet,” and that education choice is not a panacea either. It examines downsides of charter school and accountability movements, questioning promises about quality, competition, and the transfer of successful lessons between schools. Market mechanisms may produce uneven outcomes, with some schools excelling while others fail.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages4

Reading Time10 min

AccessFree to download

Educational Reform and Its Challenges

Beyond Quick Fixes and Reform Fatigue

Accountability and Choice: Not a Silver Bullet

Market Mechanisms and Charter Schools

Expectations vs. Outcomes

educate its children in the principles of science, technology, geog- one innovation follows another, teachers maybe forgiven if, from raphy, literature, and the arts. The great challenge to our genera- time to time, they suffer an acute case of reform fatigue. tion is to create a renaissance in education, one that goes well This constant reform churn isnot the approach typically found beyond the basic skills that have recently been the singular focus in countries with successful schools. In November 2006, I attended of federal activity, a renaissance that seeks to teach the best that a meeting of the International Association for the Evaluation of has been thought and known and done in every field of endeavor. Educational Achievement, an organization of scholars that has The policies we are following today are unlikely to improve our been studying school performance in many nations since the schools. Indeed, much of what 1960s. Two respected testing policymakers now demand will experts described the lessons very likely make the schools less learned from decades of mathe efftheectiveintellaenctmal acyafpurtheracity ofegurracidtie- Far too many reformers imagine matnaticsnsasAssslsmisteennsd,inIcozpieesthoi zenry. The schools will surely be that it is easy to create a successful list of the essential ingredients of a failingresowiftudcheonos grae theuateightnowption- school, but it is not. school sustrcocensgscfuureiuulcuo;nexsypesieemnc: e“ad fromchoicurestb, bbutes on anpreparmedultiplelead- improvements—if they are real— teachersing stude; effntes;ivdeeinstrucquate rnu;wrc-; fulfilling lives, to be responsible occur incrementally, as a result and a community that values educfzens, anthemselos,ie good chr familieso, sd of sustained effort over years. catedocna.t”3ioThneaune tambenodof gooin th our society. classroom, the home, the commu With the best of intentions, nity, and the culture, but reformers reformers have sought to correct in the United States continue to deficiencies by introducing new pedagogical techniques, new look for shortcuts and quick answers. ways of organizing classrooms, new technologies, new tests, new Far too many reformers imagine that it is easy to create a sucincentives, and new ways to govern schools. In every instance, cessful school, but it is not. They imagine that the lessons of a reformers believed that their solution was thevery one that would successful school are obvious and can be easily transferred to transform the schools, make learning fun, raise test scores, and other schools, just as one might take an industrial process or a usher in an age of educational joy or educational efficiency. As new piece of machinery and install itin a new plant without error. More Choices, Higher Scores, and Worse Education If there is one thing all educators know and many studies have confirmed for decades, it is that there is no single answer to educational improvement. There are no grounds for the claim made in the past decade that accountability all by itself is a silver bullet, nor for the oft-asserted argument that choice by itself is a panacea. Nonetheless, in the decade following my brief stint as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education under President George H. W. Bush, I argued that charters and accountability would help reform our schools. Teachers and schools would be judged by their performance; this was a basic principle in the business world. Schools that failed to perform would be closed, just as a corporation would close a branch office that continually produced poor returns. Having been immersed in a world of true believers atthe department, I was influenced by their ideas. I became persuaded that the business-minded thinkers were onto something important. Today, having seen these ideas inaction, I see the downsides of both the choice movement and the accountability movement. They are not solutions to our educational dilemmas. Market Mechani

FAQs

为什么作者认为教育改革不能只靠频繁更换方法？

作者指出，改革疲劳和持续性不足会削弱效果；真正的提升需要在多年中通过稳定、渐进的努力实现。

作者如何看待“问责制就是银弹”或“选择就是灵丹妙药”的说法？

作者认为两种观点都不成立。问责制和选择都不能单独解决教育困境，且都存在明显的负面影响。

文章对特许学校（charter schools）的承诺作了怎样的评价？

作者表示特许学校在质量上差异很大：有的优秀、有的糟糕，许多处于中间水平，市场机制导致结果不均。

作者认为为什么成功学校的经验很难在其他学校直接复制？

成功取决于多重因素，包括领导者与教师的个性、学校文化、学生与家庭互动，以及课程与教学质量、资源等，因此“照搬”并不可靠。

Oct 15, 2026

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