An Age of Accountability highlights the role of test-based accountability as a policy framework in American education. Even after very clear disappointments no other policy framework has emerged to challenge its hegemony, and many Americans continue to believe that accountability remains a vital necessity, even if educators and policy scholars disagree.

JOHN L. RURY is a professor emeritus of education at the University of Kansas. He is the author of many publications, including Creating the Suburban School Advantage: Race, Localism and Inequality in an American Metropolis.

Abbreviations

Introduction: School Accountability and Standardized
Testing in American History 

1 The Origins of Test-Based Accountability: Assessing
Minimum Competencies in the 1970s

2 Standardized Testing and Race: Continuity and Change,
1975–2000

3 A Time of Transition: Testing Takes a Back Seat in
the 1980s

4 New Standards and Tests: Accountability on the
National Stage

5 A Millennium Dawns: The Origins and Impact
of NCLB

Conclusion: A Troubled History and Prospects
for Change

Appendix: Oral History Sources
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index