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There has been a trend toward increased in educational accountability for the past fifty years as seen through legislation, policy, and guidance implemented by state education agencies. While states had accountability systems, the federal NCLB Act of 2001 formalized the current system that worked to remediate schools challenged to meet the accountability expectations? Exacerbating these circumstances was a shifting accountability model, AZ LEARNS, that measured school performance from 2007-2009. The Arizona Department of Education formalized processes and structures to address the needs of low-capacity schools through the State System of Support. This research examined the role of the ASSIST Coach in underperforming schools as a measure of state intervention in Arizona. Data revealed that insufficient time, resources, and support were afforded to low-capacity schools by the ASSIST Coach to affect change that resulted in school improvement within the AZ LEARNS model. Additionally, the skills, experience, and background did not align to the needs of low-capacity schools that participated in this study. In the absence of effective state intervention, schools turned to internal capacities to plan for and implement school improvement initiatives that were minimally effective in turning around their respective underperformance. Based on these findings, recommendations for future research were offered to strengthen the support for schools under the State System of Support in Arizona.

This dissertation offers a new reading of Athenian democracy, focusing on the connection between the politics of accountability and the dynamics of political advice. I analyze Athenian institutions, norms, and practices comparatively, alongside their autocratic counterparts. I show how Greek thinkers relied on a common conceptual apparatus to understand, defend, and criticize patterns of accountability and unaccountability across regimes. I explore how powerful, unaccountable political actors – whether autocratic rulers or democratic assemblies – could solicit and secure good advice, and how accountable advisers could advise them effectively and safely. In stressing similarities between counsel across regime types, I challenge the characterization of Athens as a deliberative democracy. The sumboulos (adviser) was an important figure in Greek conceptions of both democratic and autocratic politics. Athenian orators are best understood – and understood themselves – as the accountable sumbouloi of the Athenian demos. This identification casts them not as co-deliberators with their fellow citizens but rather as participants in a common Greek tradition of advising powerful figures, a tradition that found expression across political contexts. The important role of sumbouloi in both democracies and autocracies follows from the structural similarity between the two regime types. The Athenian demos, gathered together in the Assembly and in the Popular Courts, was understood to have competencies and powers akin to those of an autocratic ruler. In particular, both the demos and the autocrat were recognized as unaccountable rulers able to hold others – including their advisers – to account. Given the power imbalances structuring relationships between sumbouloi and decision makers in both democracies and autocracies, both practicing orators and theoretically inclined observers came to see that the problems and opportunities associated with having (or choosing) to speak to the powerful were comparable across regimes. The issues at stake in the demos-adviser relationship could fruitfully be compared to those at stake in the autocrat-adviser relationship. Questions such as how the powerful could recognize good advice and good advisers and what the possibilities and limitations of frank advice were under conditions of risk were not regime-specific. Insofar as ancient Greeks had a theory of political counsel, it was a strikingly portable one. / Government

Researchers have found considerable evidence that information about school performance affects people's choices about which schools to send their children to and even where to live. In contrast, little attention has been paid to the effects of school performance information on people's political behavior. Yet Hirschman (1970) famously highlighted the importance of taking seriously not only economic forces, but also the role of "political mechanisms", that is, "non-market forces" or "voice", in analyzing people's responses to school performance and the implications of these responses for school outcomes. This dissertation explores the effect of information about student and school performance on people's political attitudes and behavior. I first present findings from an original dataset of school board elections in Florida that indicate that voters fail to punish school board incumbents in response to information signaling poor school performance. There is even evidence that voters sometimes reward incumbents for failure. I next analyze a dataset that links student test scores in England to a subsequent survey, and find that that informational signals about individual student performance can have long−lasting effects on parental behavior. Finally, I analyze the results of a survey experiment administered to a nationally representative sample of Americans, and find that information about the relative performance of local schools depresses average perceptions of local school quality and increases support for school reforms. / Government

This study examined how higher performing middle schools in the Rio Grande Valley use data to drive instructional decisions. Three research questions guided this study: (a) to what extent do higher performing, Title-1, middle schools in the Rio Grande Valley utilize data to make schoolwide instructional decisions; (b) how does the principal support data use for instructional decision-making; and (c) what do teachers perceive to be the processes that have led to the current level of data use in instructional decision making? A mixed-methods multiple-case study included middle schools that were drawn from a list of higher performing schools according to Just for the Kids and the National Center for Educational Achievement. To be included in the study, schools had to be located in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, specifically in the counties of Starr, Cameron or Hidalgo. Additionally, the schools needed to be designated a Title-1 school, according to federal criteria. Data for the study was collected using a survey, followed by one-on-one interviews. Descriptive analyses was then conducted using the survey data. The interview data was analyzed using first-level coding followed by the use of cross case analysis to determine themes common to all cases. The findings from this research revealed that data is used extensively in the schools studied; primarily to determine the instructional scope of what is taught. It was found that while data use was extensive, the source and purpose of data use was limited to that which was directly tied to the state-administered assessment (TAKS). The second major finding was that principals create the necessary conditions for data use that becomes an embedded practice, where teachers can take risks with their colleagues in reviewing and using data. This study concludes that more principals can lead their schools to greater levels of data use by creating the necessary conditions for change. At the same time, the findings suggest that there is a need for leaders at all levels to examine and mitigate the unintended consequences of data use that is derived from a single-source and for a single purpose—that is, performance on the state exam (TAKS). / text

I investigate whether corporate accountability reporting and assurance help protect firm value. Specifically, I examine: 1) whether corporate accountability reporting helps firms prevent the occurrence of high-profile misconduct (bribery, kickbacks, discrimination, etc.), and 2) when high-profile misconduct does occur, does prior corporate accountability reporting reduce the negative stock price reaction. Using propensity-score matching to address self-selection, I find that on average firms that report on their corporate accountability activities are less likely to engage in high-profile misconduct, consistent with the reporting process helping firms manage their operations better. Additionally, I find that when high-profile misconduct does occur, firms that have previously issued corporate accountability reports experience a less negative stock price reaction, consistent with corporate accountability reports influencing perceptions of managerial intent, which in turn influences expected punishments. Lastly, I find no evidence that external assurance of corporate accountability reports decreases the likelihood of high-profile misconduct occurring, nor does it reduce the stock price hit when high-profile misconduct occurs, consistent with concerns raised about the value of this new form of assurance.

An Indigenous wholistic framework is used to examine the question "what makes a university a successful place for Aboriginal students?" This study moves away from a student deficit discourse by critiquing universities from an Indigenous methodological and theoretical approach in terms of (a) how Indigenous knowledges were defined and found in universities and (b) how Indigenous understandings of success, responsibility, and accountability resonated in three universities in British Columbia, Canada. This research is grounded in Indigenous theory; however, social reproduction theory was used to explain power structures inherent in the mainstream educational system. The Indigenous research process involved a mixed methods approach. Approximately 60 interviews and four sharing circles were held with a total of 92 participants representing various stakeholders across the institution. In addition, the Undergraduate Baccalaureate Graduate Surveys (UBGS) were analyzed to contextualize Aboriginal undergraduate student experiences over the last 10 years. A major finding is that respectful relationships between Aboriginal stakeholders and university faculty and leaders are key to universities becoming more successful places for Aboriginal peoples. This study shows how Indigenous knowledges were present, as pockets of presence, in the academy in programs and through Indigenous faculty, staff, and students. As sites of Indigenous knowledges, First Nations Centres played a critical role by wholistically supporting the cultural integrity of Aboriginal students and being agents of change across the institution. Indigenous wholistic understandings of success challenged hegemonic definitions that emphasized intellectual capital to include the physical, emotional, and spiritual realms. Kirkness and Barnhardt's (1991) 4Rs were used to critically examine the responsibilities of universities to Aboriginal higher education. The following institutional responsibilities were presented: relationships, such as the seen face through Aboriginal presence, having authentic allies, involving Aboriginal communities, and enacting agency; reciprocity and relevance, which addresses issues of limited financial resources, increasing retention and recruitment, and putting words into action; and respect for Indigenous knowledges. Institutional accountability from the Indigenous framework went beyond neo-liberal discourses, to include making policy public, surveillance from inside and outside the institution, and the need for metrics and benchmarks.

Police and Canadian citizens often clash during protests sometimes resulting in violent outcomes. Due to the nature of those altercations, there are few other events that require oversight more than the way police clash with protesters and there is a history of such oversight resulting in a number of Federal Parliamentary documents, Parliamentary Committee reports Task Force reports, reports arising from Public Interest Hearings of the Commission for Complaints Against the RCMP, and testimony at various hearings and inquiries which have produced particular argumentative discourses. Argumentative discourses that have a great effect on the construction of a civilian oversight agency of the RCMP is the focus of this thesis. This thesis examines how it is that different discourses, as represented by argumentative themes in these reports, intersect with one another in the process of creating a system of accountability for the RCMP. Through the lens of complaints that arise from protest and police clashes one may conclude that the current system of accountability does not adhere to a practice of protecting the most fundamental rights as prescribed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; nor would the currently proposed legislation contained within Bill C-38 alter the system in a substantial way to allow for such protections. The power dynamic between the Commissioner of the Force and the Commission for Complaints Against the RCMP favours the police force in the current and proposed system. In order for the current political landscape to become a climate favourable toward producing a system of RCMP accountability that truly protects the rights and freedoms prescribed in the Charter, a significant shift must occur in different organizations, agencies, and individuals who influence the creation of legislation and policy in this nation. This shift must be characterized by an increase in strengthening the commitment of the RCMP to protect the rights and freedoms as prescribed by the Charter rather than its current focus and interest in trying to stem the erosion of public trust and confidence in the Force. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2011-07-05 21:46:10.126

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the criminal accountability of UN officials. To do this, the question if UN officials are in fact held accountable and if so, who holds them accountable, will be investigated. Who has the legal authority to impose criminal accountability on UN employees committing crimes? Further, if they are not, what could be done to ensure criminal accountability?

One purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the self-actualization of certain selected teachers and their concern for their students as perceived by the students. A second purpose was to examine the relationship of age and years of teaching experience of the teachers and their levels of self-actualization. A third purpose was to determine whether the teachers being studied differed significantly in their self-actualizing levels from other adult groups.The subjects in the study were fifty-six volunteer teachers of grades three through six from one school district in central Indiana. The intact classes of the participating teachers comprised the student sample of 1,234 grades three through six from one school district in central Indiana.For the purpose of measuring self-actualization of teachers the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI), consisting of two major scales, Time Competence and Inner Direction, and ten sub-scales, was selected. Only the major scales were used in this study.Student perception of teacher concern was measured by the Student Estimate of Teacher Concern (SETC), Form B. This instrument consists of twenty-eight items designed to measure three major components of concern: recognition of need, understanding of need, and help given to the student.Teachers completed the POI in the Spring, 1975, and their classes were administered the SETC in January, 1976. The SETC was administered orally by the investigator as students recorded their answers. Data about age and years of teaching experience of the teachers were obtained from the teachers themselves.Analyses of the data were carried out by three correlational statistical procedures: multiple regression, canonical correlation, and multivariate analysis of variance, using the Hotelling T2 statistic.According to the levels set for determining concerned teachers in the study, all the teachers were perceived as concerned by their students except one. Out of fifty-six teachers studied, twenty-one met the criteria set for self-actualized teachers, having Time Competence raw scores above 18 and Inner Direction raw scores above 87, and having standard scores above 50. Thirty-five teachers had scores below these criteria, yet all except one received scores on the SETC above 15 in raw scores and above 50 on the standard score. No significant relationship was found between levels of self-actualization of the teachers in this study and their students' perception of their concern. These results indicate that it is not appropriate to use teachers' levels of self-actualization to predict student perception of teacher concern in this study.Approximately 37 ½ % of the teachers were self-actualizing, according to the levels set in this study. Some of the youngest people in this study were the most highly actualized, as measured by the POI, and some of the oldest teachers in this study were the least actualized. No significant relationship was found between the age and years of teaching experience of the teachers in this study and their levels of self-actualization. These results indicate that age and years of teaching experience should not be used to predict the self-actualizing levels of the teachers in this study. An older teacher may not be assumed to be more highly actualized merely because of age. Neither may a younger teacher be presumed to be low in self-actualization. It appears to this writer that other factors not measured in this study are in operation.According to this study, the profession of teaching did not make any significant difference in the self-actualization levels of the teachers, as determined by the POI. There is no reason to suppose that these teachers are different from any other adults in their self-actualization, as measured by the POI. No significant difference was found between the teachers in this study and the adults in the norming population of the POI. These results show that the teachers in this study are typical adults, and that the altruistic nature of their profession does not notably affect their self-actualization, as measured in this study. Self-actualization, according to this study, does not exist more among teachers than in other adult groups.According to the findings of this study, the SETC measure failed to discriminate among teachers on the construct of teacher concern. Sex of teachers and age and sex of students may have been factors, since the SETC was previously used primarily by female junior and senior high school students to rate female home economics teachers. This study was the first to use the SETC with students in elementary school.Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that self-actualization of teachers be further studied with relationship to the age of the teachers, using larger samples than in the present study. It is further recommended that the construct of self-actualization or psychological health be considered an important criterion of future selection of prospective teachers. A third recommendation is that evaluations of teachers be based on peer evaluation, student evaluation, self-evaluation, and administrative evaluation.