Title: Swinging between two platforms: Accountability policy in the Netherlands and educational leadership in and around schools
Abstract: In the Netherlands, accountability is a topic of fast-growing interest in
education as well as in the public sector in general. Dutch schools, as well as
other public organizations, are expected to be accountable for the spending
of public resources, and for the economic, societal, institutional, and
personal benefits of these resources. This pressure towards accountability
manifests itself in two ways and promotes the development of two platforms
for accountability policy and practices in education. One platform for
accountability policy in education is built on two public needs. One public
need is that resources that are meant for educational purposes should be
spent in schools on the intended purposes. The second public need is that
generally aspired standards for student learning should be realized by the
employment of these public resources. The second platform for accountability policy is built on the belief that when schools are held publicly
accountable, improved quality of teaching and better student learning will
result. With the first platform, the focus is on control, while with the second
platform the focus is on improvement. Within daily school practice, a tension
is often reported between the control perspective and the improvement
perspective of accountability (Hofman et al., 2005).
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-04-28
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 4
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