So far, more is committed to paper than put into action. Texas and North Carolina come the closest to having all the components of a complete accountability system. These two states also posted the largest average gains in student test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress between 1990 and 1996. Most rewards and sanctions are focused primarily on schools and their performance, rather than on individual educators. Despite their threats to impose severe penalties, few states are ready or willing to use them.
Most educators also remain opposed to accountability as it is being pursued in many states.
But 68 percent of teachers disagree. Nearly half the educators had never seen such a report. Participants generally did not believe, or were unsure, that they have the information needed to evaluate schools. There is considerable dissonance between the information states now include in school report cards and what the public wants to know. School safety and teacher qualifications were among the top two or three concerns of parents, other taxpayers, and educators.