The Concept of Accountability in Education: Does the Swedish School System Apply?

Abstract

- Recent years have seen a growing international debate over accountability in education, and particularly the consequences of such systems. The Swedish school system seems to share many common features with systems in countries where the accountability debate is strong. Still, in Sweden there has been limited discussion and no attention paid to the international debate. The present paper explores whether Sweden can be said to have a standards-based accountability system or not, by comparing the Swedish system with a standards- based accountability model. The conclusion is that the Swedish national assessment system may not be an accountability system in the narrower sense, but that issues of accountability are nevertheless prevalent in current discussions about the successes and failures of Swedish educational policy and practice. It is found the in-explicitness of the system is a threat to validity as assessment instruments may be used and interpreted in ways they were not intended to, with unintended consequences as a result. Keywords: Accountability, assessment, goals, consequences, compulsory education.