Education accountability *policy in Missouri: An exploration of the relationship between the Missouri School Improvement Program standards and student achievemen

The current wave of education reform has focused attention on school accountability for student performance. Part of this reform effort emphasized a more coherent and coordinated system of school resource, process, and performance indicators, as well as a restructuring of content and pedagogy. Moreover, student achievement has become the primary mechanism for assessing school quality, as was evidenced with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. Given the stakes for school performance on statewide examinations that have resulted from those policies, public debate on the issue of school accountability and performance remains heated, and the question remains whether or not accountability policies have made a positive difference in student learning.;Using the framework of implementation policy research and alternative policy instruments as a context for analysis, the purpose of this study was to explore the accountability structures in Missouri and add to the limited extent literature on the efficacy of those structures. Accordingly, this study examined the relationship among the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) resource standards, process standards, and student achievement. MSIP was the policy mechanism that codified state standards regarding the resources, processes, and outcomes of education, with the aim of increasing school quality. Both the resource and process categories were examined in relation to student performance.;The primary independent variables used in the study were the MSIP resource and process standards. Together with students' socioeconomic status and district per-pupil expenditure, those variables were examined in three models to see if they contributed to explaining student achievement on the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) examinations, as well as change in performance. Statistical analyses included Cronbach's Alpha, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis.;Results of the study show that statistically significant relationships existed between MSIP and student achievement. Specifically, the MSIP process category of standards was found to help explain student performance on the MAP examinations, and although the amount of variance explained was small, it was high enough in some analyses to have practical import. The resource category was statistically significantly associated with student achievement in one analysis. With regard to change in performance, the process category was found to explain only a very small amount of change in MAP student achievement scores that were two years apart. The resource category did not help explain change in performance.