Educational accountability

Thus there arises the fundamental dilemma of education. To define in advance an end result and then to seek by all possible means to achieve it is to be held too narrowing, too repressive, too authoritarian. But if, on the other hand, there is no end in view, educational activity is confused and incoherent. Its various parts and successive phases do not add up to anything. Without a definition of the end there is no test by which means can be selected, and no standard by which practice can be criticized and improved.I should like to acknowledge, with thanks, the criticisms of an earlier draft of this paper by my colleagues Hardy Jones, Jon Moline, and John Rich.