ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the range of accountability designs at the state level. States have constitutional or statutory responsibility for public education and provide, on average, half of its funding. While states must comply with federal accountability requirements, there is flexibility in how they do so. A review of state ESSA plans yields a typology of different approaches in the context of administrative accountability, including a traditional, test-based approach aligned more with conservative states and a reform approach aligned with a liberal policy tradition that includes broader goals and indicators. In addition to this school-based approach, market accountability appears through charter school and school choice policies that are established at the state level, while political accountability takes place through the ballot box in the election of governors and some chief state school officers and members of state boards of education.
