Since at least the 1960s, federal and state policymakers have debated how best to hold public schools accountable for producing graduates who are prepared to fully participate in our democratic society. Since that time, reform efforts have led to Texas' current test-based A-F accountability system. This qualitative case study explored how one Texas school district worked to design and implement an alternative accountability system. A community-based accountability system (CBAS) is created in collaboration with local stakeholders and uses locally developed goals and multiple achievement measures to report student and school performance. A zone of mediation theoretical framework was used to evaluate how the studied district assessed and addressed the community's norms, values, priorities, and goals for public schools. Data were drawn from an analysis of relevant documents, five individual district leader interviews, and a parent and/or community member focus group. These data were analyzed using a combination of a priori and in vivo coding. The six themes that emerged from this analysis were: (a) dissatisfaction with A-F accountability, (b) developing an alternative accountability, (c) collaboration with like-minded districts and leaders, (d) engagement with internal stakeholders; (e) engagement with external stakeholders, and (f) assessing community values and goals for public education. The findings can be viewed as an exemplar for school leaders interested in designing and implementing a CBAS that falls within their community's unique zone of mediation.

Published Article / Municipalities in South Africa are under pressure as a result of poor financial control and lack of accountability, leading to extensive corruption and financial mismanagement with detrimental consequences for effective and efficient service delivery. Financial control is of the utmost importance when it comes to determining the success or failure of local government in South Africa. Currently, several challenges exist that hamper effective and efficient financial management at municipalities. These challenges include, amongst others, a lack of expertise, an inability to collect arrear debt, extensive corruption, exorbitant salaries and bonuses, and so forth. These challenges also contribute towards ineffective and inefficient municipal service delivery. If municipalities want to overcome these challenges, it is essential for those involved to address matters in a sincere, honest and ethical manner. In this article the author investigates the challenges facing local government and proposes ways of overcoming the challenges by means of the enforcement of strict financial control measures for public accountability. This in effect serves as a guarantee for sound municipal financial management in South Africa.

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Participatory budgeting is a tool that can be used to improve social accountability within public institutions through increasing the participation of citizens in decision-making processes about the distribution of public funds. The global experiences from the use of participatory budgeting indicate that the impact of the initiatives has ranged from very weak to highly successful, and that the successfulness depends on certain factors in the environment where it is implemented – even though there is no agreement on what these factors are. Albania is one of the countries where a range of civil society organizations are implementing participatory budgeting initiatives and is at the same time a country that faces one of the highest corruption levels in Europe. Despite the fact that these initiatives could bring very important impacts, very little academic research is done on this topic. The purpose of this thesis was therefore to investigate to what extent the participatory budgeting initiatives in Albania have improved social accountability in the Albanian societies, as well as what factors that have affected this impact and how. The investigation was carried out as a case study in Albania where nine different participatory budgeting initiatives were examined through conducting semi-structured interviews with the organizations implementing these projects, as well as one expert organization that has helped the other organizations to improve their knowledge on the tool and one public official from a municipality involved in one of the initiatives. The research of this thesis found that the Albanian participatory budgeting initiatives have succeeded to do minor improvements on social accountability through strengthening the voice of the citizens and the enforcement mechanism, while formal answerability still is low and negatively affects the sustainability of these improvements. It was further found that seventeen factors from five different categories have affected the ability of the initiatives to improve social accountability – some more than others. These categories were: formal and informal political systems, supportive legal and policy frameworks, local capacity and knowledge, free media institutions, and availability of information. The contributions of the thesis included also the finding of a factor that was not mentioned by the theory (trust by local governments in civil society organizations), as well as a structure on how these influencing factors interact with each other.

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During the last decade, a number of U.S. government officials have been using modern technology, such as personal email accounts and computers, to evade certain transparency legislation. Similar tendencies of strategic evasiveness can also be identified in Sweden. By comparing U.S. and Swedish history, legislation, and specific modern examples, I reach the conclusion that with regards to governmental accountability, modern technology presents both positive and negative aspects. While modern technology gives government officials a way of preventing sensitive or embarrassing information to be released, or otherwise further a hidden political agenda, it also provides private organizations and individuals with various ways of keeping government accountable. In order to minimize the negative effects, issues such as incentive structures, technological boundaries, court review, and the general scope of government need to be considered.

Audit committees are an integral part of good corporate governance and their establishment strengthens the credibility of governments. As a foundation of good governance, audit committees are positioned to provide an objective assessment of whether or not public resources are responsibly and effectively managed. They also promote accountability and integrity, as well as improvement in the operations of governments and municipalities. The establishment of audit committees in the local sphere of government came with the advent of modernisation in terms of the budget and financial management, which was intended to strengthen accountability. The requirement for effective utilisation of resources by local government is critical for the support and empowerment of local communities and delivery of effective services. The audit committee framework for local government, which is provided by the Municipal Finance Management Act (56 of 2003), is underpinned by principles of good governance and accountability, which promote the effective functioning of audit committees. However, there are perceptions and arguments advanced in the literature regarding the effectiveness of audit committees as an accountability structure. This was brought about by the recurring reported incidences of the failure of businesses, which took place despite the existence of rules and laws regulating the function. As a result, trends of leading best practices were established, which enhanced audit committees' performance and were adopted as a proxy for the measurement of audit committees’ effectiveness. The focus of the study is on validating the perception by management that the audit committee of the Westonaria Local Municipality (WLM) is effective in the execution of its oversight role. A literature study on the functioning of audit committees have been undertaken, official municipal documents were analysed and a questionnaire has been developed and utilised as a means for gathering data, in order to prove the hypothesis to be either true or false. The areas investigated in this study demonstrate that the audit committee of WLM is generally effective in the execution of its oversight function. The findings of the study also identified certain areas in the audit function which require the attention of both management and the audit committee of the municipality. More specifically, the observations made in the study include the following: (i) that audit committee members are not provided with the agendas and reports in sufficient time for them to adequately prepare for meetings; (ii) that a productive relationship between the audit committee and the management of the local government has to be maintained; (iii) that there is a lack of informal meetings between the audit committee and the external and internal auditors; (iv) that no appropriate training of the audit committee on existing and potential audit risks in local government is in place; (v) that there is an absence of continuous learning programmes for the members of the audit committee; and (vi) that audit committee members do not evaluate themselves in terms of their level of knowledge regarding the functioning and activities of their audit committee. Attending to these aspects, as identified through this study, will further improve the audit committee’s activities in the WLM. These aspects are therefore not viewed in a negative light, but are rather regarded as a positive venture to be addressed by municipal management and the audit committee, in order to improve the functioning of the audit committee. These aspects should therefore be added to the many positives aspects that are identified concerning the WLM audit committee, as discussed in this study. / M Public Administration (Development and Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This study investigates how waqf officers in two State Religious Councils (SRCs) in Malaysia undertake their responsibilities and duties of accountability to inform and improve the management of waqf properties for the benefit of beneficiaries and the public. The thesis uses the concept of holistic accountability by O'Dwyer & Unerman (2008) to conceptualise the relationship between waqf officers (accountors) and waqf stakeholders (accountees). Two key components of holistic accountability are identified, i.e., hierarchical upward and downward accountability. The religious setting of waqf presents an opportunity to examine how Islamic values influence the way holistic accountability is enacted and experienced. The thesis uses the concept of felt accountability to assess the extent to which this occurs. Semi-structured interviews are employed to understand the waqf officers' perception of the extent to which they discharge their responsibilities and duties of accountability. This data collection method is complemented by non-participant observation and documentary analysis. The study finds that Islamic values, such as belief in the Day of Judgement, encourage the officers to undertake their responsibility and duty of accountability in a proactive and creative way. This is explained in the thesis as felt accountability, an individualised . perception of accountability that provides a powerful motivation for waqf officers to discharge their downward accountability. However, the study also finds that the impact of felt accountability on holistic accountability is influenced by the organisational Structure of the SRC. Hierarchical structures may constrain officers' felt accountability whilst decentralised structures may offer too much flexibility to waqf officers.

Reconciliation is generally studied from the perspective of how the process affects the individual. This study on the contrary, seeks to explain how the individual expectation of the process affects its outcome by investigating the relationship between motives to participate and the outcome of acceptance for your former adversary. A research gap has been identified in studying individual motives for participating in reconciliation processes between social factors as a facilitator for reconciliation and the actual joining of a process. Studying this gap has resulted in support for the hypothesis that individuals with the motive to tell the truth in a process experience high levels of acceptance towards their former adversaries, compared to individuals who participate in a process with the motive of holding the other party accountable for past sufferings. Using the method of in-depth interviews in Cambodia and thematic analysis reveals the main finding that acceptance is facilitated by the mechanisms of acknowledgment and understanding of the other party in combination with active interaction between the parties. This study presents three main recommendations for future ideas and reconciling establishments.

This study examined the relationships between the SOL End-of-Course Reading and Writing tests and the new PSAT/NMSQT Verbal and Writing tests. The PSAT/NMSQT Writing tests were administered for the first time in October 2004. Two linear regression analyses were utilized, with PSAT/NMSQT Verbal and writing scores, gender, race, and special education as the independent variables, and SOL End-of-Course Reading and Writing scores as the dependent variables. Additionally, two logistic regression analyses were employed with the same variables to predict whether or not a student would pass the SOL End-of-Course Reading and Writing tests. Results indicated that the PSAT/NMSQT Verbal and Writing scores accounted for the bulk of the variance in the SOL Reading and Writing scores. Special education students were predicted to have much lower scores than their non-special education counterparts. Gender and race contributed the least to the regression analyses. With the emphasis on scientifically-based research, this study could be utilized to develop remediation programs for students predicted to fail the SOL tests. Further research is warranted using additional variables, such as GPA, socio-economic status, and a wider variety of race.