Pupil Achievement under Varying Levels of Teacher Accountability. Professional Paper 28.

This year-long study was conducted to investigate effects of various teacher accountability factors on reading achievement of first-grade pupils. Each of fifteen schools was assigned through randomized blocking procedures (blocking factors were reading achievement and percentage of minority students) to one of four levels of accountability. Accountability levels were defined from low to high as follows: use of the regular first-grade reading program without supplementation; the regular program plus a supplementary system including instructional objectives, regular assessment and remedial exercises, and objectives-keyed pupil performance records for each of the fifteen instructional units in the program; the second condition plus either a pacing schedule or reporting of unit scores to the school principal; and the second condition plus both pacing and reporting. A 45-item criterion test based on the major objectives of the reading program was individually administered at the end of the school year. An L-test for four rankings (accountability levels) by three observations (mean subtest scores on three major reading objectives) revealed a significant positive relationship (p < .001) between level of teacher accountability and pupil reading achievement. (Author)