ABSTRACT
Accountability pressures cause interesting decisions. Schools should be accountable to the children they serve, the parents who entrust school leaders in loco parentis, and the state. School accountability should therefore demonstrate that schools provide what is right for the child, what the careful parent would want and what the state has defined. Proxy accountability measurements protect the public’s expenditure and set reasonable targets for the state’s provision and intervention. Children, parents and the state would be better served by longitudinal, accurate and formative accountability measures. In 2017, Geoff Barton, the new General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), began to talk about the work of ASCL’s Ethical Leadership Commission as he went from place to place. Nolan’s formulation of accountability suggests that school accountability should arise naturally out of the good provision of the school. Judgements should be in accordance with what that provision demonstrates.
