ABSTRACT

Accountability is becoming an increasingly central norm in the global education agenda. The most influential international organizations in the education policy field have fueled such high expectations with proposed accountability solutions. Accountability policies are absolutely pivotal in the policy recommendations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports on education, including the influential Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). This chapter reviews international evidence on the effects of accountability policies in education, with a particular focus on teachers' work and behavior. Specifically, on the basis of existing evidence, the chapter shows how the different components of accountability schemes (namely their policy design, enactment processes, contextual contingencies, and impact) interact in complex and multiple ways, and trigger different outcomes. The expansion of the test-based accountability regime is also related to the consolidation of new public management (NPM) as a public sector reform paradigm.