Better schools and real accountability are indeed possible and necessary. But we cannot achieve this through threats, bribes or fixation on testing. In Democratic School Accountability, Ken Jones and his co-authors give voice to caring educators and offer a sensible and promising alternative to the prevailing and wrong-headed policies. It's about time.

Adam Urbanski, president, Rochester (NY) Teachers Association; vice-president, American Federation of Teachers; director, Teacher Union Reform, Founding Director of the Teacher Union Reform Network

We owe our students and our teachers something better than what is done through high-stakes, standardized testing schemes of accountability. Our students and our teachers deserve something that measures learning, provides immediate and empowering feedback, and something that is part of a systemic approach to improvement that leads from the classroom up and the classroom out and is supported and celebrated as the center of the real work of accountability. Dr. Jones' model is one every school should consider and the book is a must read for all leaders of learning-teachers, principals, superintendents and policy leaders.

Doug Christensen, Nebraska Commissioner of Education, emeritus commissioner of education (Nebraska), professor of leadership in education, graduate division, Doane College

This is just the book we need to start the discussion we've not been engaged in: accountable for what? In this modest-but critically important-book we have the chance to explore this from the bottom up and the top down. What a relief, and how thought-provoking. Each chapter builds upon the last, culminating in a different but eminently practical way of opening up new possibilities.

Deborah Meier, MacArthur Award-winning founder of the Central Park East Schools in New York and the Mission Hill School in Boston

Jones and co-authors describe a new model for school accountability that provides a more nuanced alternative to the present system of using high-stakes testing. ... Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of schools being held accountable to their primary stakeholders: students, parents, and the local community.

Reference and Research Book News

Those who care about improving public education should read this book. In contrast to much of what passes for 'accountability' these days, it paints a vivid, on-the-ground picture of the kind of system that could provide a 'full, complex, and high-resolution picture' of how schools are actually doing-and help them support rich and rigorous learning for all of their students.

Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University