When children's questions go unheard, they grow deaf to life's questions, as also to the answers it provokes them to find. A school is the response to a community's search for the tools to gift its children with, to mine life's richness. In this community thrust, the child is the focus of adult collaboration. Accountability has been a key concept in education policy for over a century, with roots traced back to 19th century England 1 . For instance, several countries and numerous U.S. states and several countries have instituted voucher programs entitling children in poor performing public schools to use government funds to attend private schools.
Similar programs are active in Latin America and Europe.
Likewise, there has been a proliferation of charter schools in the United States. These privately run schools rely primarily on government funds and offer children in public schools a no-cost alternative education. Standards-based testing also is becoming common, seeking to hold schools accountable for the content and quality of the education they provide. These programs are controversial and the methods of implementation are clearly a key to their success. Opponents contend that vouchers and charter schools effectively punish poor performance of public schools, making undeniably apparent that deficiencies exist and the imperative to improve.