Deconstructing the rationalities and epistemologies of school accountability in England

Schools’ accountability for student performance outcomes is an established policy lever in many education systems. However, the meaning of ‘accountability’ and the mechanisms through which schools are held to account often escape scrutiny. Based on a conceptual analysis and empirical data from expert interviews, this article identifies three problems with how accountability has been deployed as a driver of school improvement in England. First, accountability is assumed to serve the overarching purpose of school improvement through enforcement rather than justification of schools’ decisions and actions. Second, accountability is aligned with the rationalities and technologies of government, which problematise schools’ conduct to warrant external intervention. Third, the reductive epistemology of calculation and control, which makes schools accountable for student performance in high-stakes tests and uses punitive measures when schools do not measure up, makes accountability opaque, defeating the idea of accountability as giving a transparent account of one’s actions to provide information, justify and explain. Coupled with competition, accountability is yet to deliver the significant improvement promised by successive governments. This article, therefore, argues for a reconfiguring of accountability, with implications for policy and practice in England and other education systems which rely on accountability as a driver of improvement.