Accountability Systems Research Articles

Can a school climate survey accurately and equitably measure school quality? Examining the multilevel structure and invariance of the Georgia School Climate Scale

School climate measures are increasingly utilized as one indicator of school quality within educational accountability systems. However, concerns have been raised about the accuracy of these indicators given that school climate surveys are often not validated using multilevel methods. Further, cross-school comparisons in climate may not be trustworthy because the school-level invariance of climate surveys has not been investigated. There is a need to examine the validity of school-level climate constructs and to determine if surveys measure climate equitably for schools that serve underrepresented populations. The aim of the current study was to examine the multilevel factor structure of a statewide school climate survey to determine whether it measured climate equitably for students of different races/ethnicities and across schools with varying racial/ethnic and socioeconomic compositions. Participants included 259,778 students from 427 middle schools throughout a southeastern U.S. state. Cross-level invariance analyses revealed that the climate constructs were measured differently across levels of analysis, and school-level climate could not be interpreted as merely the aggregate of individual-level climate. Student- and school-level factorial invariance was tested using multilevel modeling procedures. Results revealed item bias with respect to student and school characteristics, and the relationships between school climate and student and school demographics changed after accounting for identified bias. As more educational agencies consider including school climate surveys in their accountability systems, these findings suggest that multilevel validation procedures and school-level invariance analyses are necessary to ensure accurate and equitable measurement.

Association between environmental lead/cadmium co-exposure in drinking water and soil and type 2 diabetes mellitus/obesity in Southern China.

Lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in environment can be directly absorbed by drinking water and soil. However, data on human Pb and Cd exposure by drinking water and soil and its long-term consequence for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity are lacking. Our study aims to explore the association of typical heavy metals co-exposure in drinking water and soil to the community residents with T2DM and obesity indices in two cities of southern China. A cross-sectional study enrolling total 1,274 participants was performed and the local water and soil samples were collected in two communities in southern China. The average daily dose (ADD) of heavy metals was calculated to assess the exposure. The obesity indices comprise body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist circumference (WC). Binary, multiple logistic and linear regressions were employed for assessing the associations of Pb and Cd exposure with T2DM and obesity. The results showed that there weren't any significant correlations between ADDs of Pb/Cd and T2DM in community residents (all Ps>0.05). Compared with those with 18.5 ≤ BMI <24, with 1 μg/kg bw/d ADD of Pb increase in exposure are associated with 49.2–56.1% lower likelihood of overweight. Besides, with ADDs of Pb exposure was increased by 1 μg/kg bw/d and WHR decreasing by 0.01–0.02, and WC decreasing by 2.22–4.67 cm. We speculate that Pb causes weight loss because it damages the absorption function of the gastrointestinal tract as an initial injury. 1μg/kg bw/d ADD of Cd increase is associated with 100.9% upper likelihood of low weight in Model 1. It suggests that Pb/Cd pollution in the local environment was serious and harmful to residents' health. Government should introduce relevant oversight and accountability systems to improve the prevention and management of lifestyle-related chronic diseases in the future.

Why do opt-out movements succeed (or fail) in low-stakes accountability systems? A case study of the Network of Dissident Schools in Catalonia

External and standardized assessments based on student results are a contested education policy among school actors. Movements of opposition have emerged in different countries, especially in those contexts with high-stakes accountability systems. However, this phenomenon has not been analyzed in soft accountability systems. The objective of this article is to study the opt-out movement in Catalonia, understood as an anti-standardization movement in a system of soft accountability. In order to do so, we adopt the case study approach as a methodological strategy, based on the triangulation of semi-structured interviews with activists (n = 14), key stakeholders (n = 3), and document and press analysis (n = 25). The results shed light on the emergence and nature of the movement, its opportunity structures, the discursive frames and the repertoires of collective action. Our results show how accountability instruments have a ‘life of their own’ beyond their policy design. In this sense, the opt-out movement in Catalonia identifies potential risks and adverse effects similar to those reported in high-stakes systems, developing a repertoire of collective action and discursive frames similar to other emerging anti-standardization movements in high-stakes contexts.

Researching the prospects for change that COVID disruption has brought to high stakes testing and accountability systems

This paper explores the disruption that COVID has brought to the normal functioning of performance-based accountability systems and asks whether this has created new possibilities for those organising against the use of high stakes testing in education. Drawing on a sequence of research projects exploring primary schools’ responses to the pandemic in England during 2020-21, this article considers the ways in which the pandemic creates new conditions for dismantling high stakes testing and accountability regimes, and the role of research in making the case for change.

Why Do Opt-Out Movements Succeed (or Fail) in Low- Stakes Accountability Systems? A Case Study of the Network of Dissident Schools in Catalonia

Why Do Opt-Out Movements Succeed (or Fail) in Low- Stakes Accountability Systems? A Case Study of the Network of Dissident Schools in Catalonia

Professional responsibility in the borderlands: Facing irreconcilable accountability regimes in veterinary work

(Dutch) veterinarians have increasingly been confronted with conflicting accountability regimes, related to data-driven, networked accountability systems, to decrease the use of antibiotics in veterinary practices. Based on our longitudinal ethnography (2012–2020), we propose a conceptual model that illustrates how professionals intra-actively become positioned in different accountability regimes, yet which is continually diffracted by the recalling of their responsibilities to proximal and distant others. By taking an agential realist approach, we contribute to recent critical perspectives on accountability by showing how veterinary professionals become positioned as specific accountable subjects and yet how such positioning simultaneously produces the ‘borderlands’ – a space of indeterminacy in which the accounting practices of the professional are continuously weighed in light of incommensurable responsibilities. Based on our results, we show how conflicting accountability regimes are—as often argued—not to be ‘fixed’ through commensuration, nor are they dysfunctional. Rather, they create the very condition of indeterminacy, opening up the possibility for professional responsibility. We offer suggestions for how to further investigate this appreciation of the borderlands, for example, by focusing on how the account holder can draw from other responsibilities to counter a dominant accountability regime, and how governing authorities can become positioned as responsible for keeping professionals in the borderlands.

The Case Study of Los Angeles City &amp; County Fraud, Embezzlement and Corruption Safeguards during times of pandemic

This exploratory qualitative case study analyzes the risks of misappropriation of COVID-19 relief funds managed by public agencies in the County of Los Angeles. This study documents deviance, sources of misbehavior, vulnerability factors and mitigation strategies in place to prevent fraud and corruption. Results indicate that loopholes in benefits eligibility certification led to massive levels of fraud, and that internal infrastructure and the work climate within public institutions exacerbated fraud risks. Institutional fragmentation, political pressures and human resources practices hindered the effectiveness of prevention mechanisms. Recommendations to strengthen accountability systems and institutional safeguards against fraud and ethical deviance are proposed.

Surveillance capitalism in the middle east retail sector

• Loyalty programs are Big Data apparatuses to extract customers’ behavioral data. • Accounting-based marketing practices are implicated in surveillance capitalism practices. • Surveillance capitalism relies on the interaction of socio-religious norms and everyday calculative practices. • Netnography is used to study how Big Data operationalizes surveillance capitalism. • Deficiencies in accountability exist for accounting-based marketing practices such as loyalty programs. Big Data has dramatically changed the competitive landscape of the global economy ( Demirkan et al., 2015 ). Big Data capabilities enable marketers to differentiate customers by accessing and analysing their daily activities to influence the customers’ choices in a way that increases profits. Marketers are thus motivated to design technologies that extract as much data as possible to tempt customers, and even lock them into a cycle of commitment. This process of data extraction is the first stage of what has become known as surveillance capitalism, which occurs in the absence of dialogue or consent and contributes to structures of indifference towards the rights and liberties of customers ( Zuboff, 2019b ). In this paper, we highlight these intersecting relationships between accounting, accountability and marketing practices. We explore the role of the accounting-based marketing practices that persuade customers of a large retail provider in the Middle East to participate in and use a loyalty program. We then explain how particular forms of calculative practice, intertwined with socio-religious cultural norms, serve the goals of surveillance capitalism. We also reflect on the traditional position of accountability systems vis-à-vis accounting-based marketing practices to consider the ethical concerns that underpin the use of ‘Big Data’ techniques ( Dillard and Vinnari, 2019 , Roslender and Nielsen, 2020 ) .

In What Ways Might Quality Be Controlled in Education, and What Are Their Advantages and Disadvantages?

Quality has always been the key to the development of education, the concept of education quality is as old as education itself. Quality has become a key concept in the education discussion since the 1980s. While improving the quality of education, the issue of quality control has also received increasing attention, and gradually become a hot topic of discussion at the moment. In what ways to control the quality of education has become an important issue. Based on the background of British higher education, this paper will discuss how the performance-related pay (PRP) system and accountability system control the quality of education from the perspective of teacher professionalism.

Improving and Evaluating Business Management in the Digital Economy Based on Data Analysis

In the new economic situation, enterprises formally enter the transition period of “think power differentiation and gap,” big data, artificial intelligence, digital empowerment, and other new digital economy has a positive effect on improving technical means and reducing operating costs, but the digital economy also forces enterprises to improve their strategies at a multiplier speed. The strategic decision of enterprises is to de-enterprise, from pursuing a single business operation benefit to winning competitive advantage by creating a platform ecosystem; the enterprise organization management mode is shifting from vertical management to horizontal collaborative management, and the organization structure is developing dynamically flat. This requires enterprises to pay attention to the role of data analysis in daily operations and management, promote the establishment of a data-driven corporate culture, make full use of digital technology, modularize production links or departments with similar functions or services, and promote the transformation of organizational structure. By unifying the output of products or services to the outside world; at the same time, improve the corporate performance model, shift from result-oriented to process-oriented assessment, and implement a personalized, authority, and accountability system. Shift from result-oriented to process-oriented assessment and implement a personalized incentive model that matches authority, responsibility, and benefits.

The Roles of Balanced Scorecard in Improving Performance Accountability System in Indonesian Government Organizations

Based on the evaluation report from the Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform, the quality of the Indonesian government organisation’s performance accountability is still deficient. Therefore, several Indonesian government institutions have practised the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), a perspective-based performance management tool, to improve their performance accountability. This paper analyses how the Indonesian central government employs BSC and strategy maps to improve its performance accountability systems. A descriptive qualitative study concluded that Indonesian government agencies use different approaches to implement perspectives in the BSC, which they think are best suited to the characteristics of each government organisation. Indonesian government institutions generally implement BSC as a strategy execution tool, a measurement tool, and a performance accountability report. Therefore, these roles of BSC lead to an improved performance accountability system. The essential factors in developing BSC implementation are explained as well. However, this paper only primarily uses data from the Ministry of Finance and focuses only on the central government due to data limitations and time constraints. Therefore, future research is suggested.

Country-led monitoring and evaluation systems through the lens of participatory governance and co-production: Implications for a Made in Africa Evaluation approach

Background: The history of evaluations on the African continent can be linked to the introduction of upward systems of accountability resulting from the rapid introduction of international aid programmes for the (re)building of African states during the post-independence era. Results-based management and monitoring and evaluation (ME) became commonplace, the features of which continue to imbue national ME systems across the continent. These systems, if not intentionally so designed and implemented, are not particularly focused on learning for course-correction and performance improvement from the perspective of citizens. Conducting evaluations, in particular, is often based on the need for accountability to funders or decision-makers, as opposed to downward accountability to the public and intended beneficiaries of the interventions.Objectives: This article explores how localised approaches to governance (merged with co-production) could ensure that evaluation systems are liberatory if they are endogenous and indigenous in their design and respond to the needs of citizens (rather than serving an upward accountability agenda).Method: Through the analytical framework of participatory governance and co-production, this article examines how participatory approaches to establishing national evaluation (and monitoring) systems may help the African continent liberate itself from the instrumental adoption of ME systems, defined by compliance and accountability, and instead design systems based on a citizen-owned, people-centred notion of downward accountability.Results: Participatory governance and co-production are well aligned to the principles of MAE (Made in Africa Evaluation) and may provide the means to arriving at more inclusive forms of ME systems development and, concomitantly, more inclusive ways of producing and using evidence for policy, governance and development on a national scale.Conclusion: Although desirable due its potential to transform systems of governance to become more citizen-centred, co-production must not be romanticised nor over-simplified. Increasing levels of citizen participation in governance must consider that there are significant changes that need to be made to institutional structures and processes, such as new forms of accountability, governance, systems and structures for citizen involvement. Therefore, a combination of practical, technical, ideological, relational and political factors must be considered in the adoption of more participatory approaches in establishing national ME systems.

Public administration and politics meet turbulence: The search for robust governance responses

Public administration and politics meet turbulence: The search for robust governance responses

Mining and socio-ecological systems: A systematic review of Sub-Saharan Africa

This study adapted a socio-ecological framework to review Drivers of mining Activities, the environmental Pressures, the State of changes, their Impacts on human Welfare, and the management Response as Measures (DAPSI(W)R(M)) to mining activities. Systematic literature review was employed in data collection. The mining activities lead to environmental pressures, such as forest degradation, and wastewater. State changes of the environment as a result of pressures generated by mining activities were changes in land cover and habitat degradation leading to biodiversity loss, air, water and soil pollution. As a result of the state changes in the environment, the livelihood strategies of communities have been affected. Sub-Saharan African countries have implemented legal and policy framework as measures to overcome adverse effects of mining on the social systems. However, there is still a need for effective formulation and implementation of policies, legislation, plans, and strategies for the sustainable mining and rural development. These will be far-reaching in addressing application and mal-practices in mining sector such as corruption, limited meaningful participation of host communities, non-adherence to social and environmental standards, adverse incentives in inadequate local policies and accountability systems, transfer pricing, tax evasion and under-valuation of assets.

State-Level Policy Environments, Discrimination, and Victimization among Sexual and Gender Minority People.

Legislation has been passed in some states to reduce discrimination and victimization toward sexual and gender minority people (SGM; people who are not solely heterosexual and/or whose gender identity is not equal to what is socially associated with sex assigned at birth). The purpose of these analyses is to test whether state-level policy environments are associated with past-year discrimination and victimization among SGM people. Cross-sectional data from The Population Research in Identity and Disparities for Equality (PRIDE) Study annual questionnaire (collected 2018–2019), a national study of the health of SGM adults in the USA, were used for these analyses. Measures included related to discrimination, victimization, and demographic characteristics. State-level policy environments were measured using data from the Movement Advancement Project. Logistic regression analyses evaluated state-level policy environment scores and past-year discrimination and victimization among gender identity categories. In this sample, 7044 people (gender minority n = 2530) were included. Cisgender sexual minority (odds ratio [OR] = 1.007, p = 0.041) and the gender expansive subgroup of gender minority people (OR = 1.010, p = 0.047) in states with more protective policy environments had greater odds of discrimination. The gender expansive subgroup was found to have greater odds of victimization in states with more protective policy environments (OR = 1.003, p < 0.05). There was no relationship between state-level policy environments and victimization among any other study groups. SGM people may experience increased risk for discrimination and victimization despite legislative protections, posing continued risks for poor health outcomes and marginalization. Evaluation of factors (e.g., implementation strategies, systems of accountability) that influence the effectiveness of state-level polices on the reported experiences of discrimination and victimization among SGM people is needed.

Analysis of performance accountability principles in the implementation of the performance accountability system government institutions in Rokan Hilir Regency Indonesia

The study aims to examine how the Rokan Hilir Regency Government Performance Accountability System implements the notion of performance accountability. By adopting the Government Agency Performance Accountability System, the Rokan Hilir Regency Government would, of course, improve the performance of government agencies and raise the Accountability of Rokan Hilir Regency local government agencies as part of realizing Accountability. This study employs a qualitative research design and a descriptive research design. All of the agencies involved in the Rokan Hilir Regency Regional Development environment served as the study's primary informants. Based on research findings and data analysis, Presidential Regulation Number 29 of 2014 concerning the Performance Accountability System of Government Agencies outlines the fundamentals of performance accountability for implementing the performance accountability system for government agencies in the Rokan Hilir regency government. Through Ellwood's (1993) Accountability Approach Model, problems with honesty and legal Accountability, process accountability, program accountability, and policy accountability arise in the Rokan Hilir Regency Government's Implementation of the Performance Accountability System for Government Agencies are examined.

Village Fund Management Accountability in Preventing Bureaucracy Corruption Behavior

The village fund is the government's effort to accelerate village independence through budget incentives allocated to each village of 1 (one) billion. Village achievements in the use of village funds can be assessed as quite good with a policy orientation that focuses on village empowerment and development programs. Through this development program, it is able to grow the community's economy, and can result in the reduction of social poverty. However, there are still problems related to the use of village funds, many cases of corruption that ensnare village heads due to mismanagement of village funds such as fictitious projects, inflated development budgets, embezzlement of village funds that are not used for development activities. Research participants were each village was assigned 25 respondents by random sampling, consisting of: 8 employees, and 17 community service users. There were 150 respondents. Results showed that the main factor that triggers the occurrence of corruption is due to the lack of proper accountability system in managing village funds. For this reason, it is necessary to build a more precise accountability system to anticipate the occurrence of irregularities committed by the village government. Accountability is the embodiment of the village head's obligation to be responsible for the management and control of resources and the implementation of the entrusted policies in order to achieve the goals that have been set. Through the accountability system, it can be the right solution in anticipating the occurrence of irregularities, because accountability can encourage and grow the role of the community to supervise the use of village funds. Keywords : Accountability, village funds, village government, corruption. DOI : 10.7176/RHSS/12-16-03 Publication date :August 31st 2022

Accountable for a Lifetime: Reforms in Prosecutorial Accountability in China

Abstract The judicial accountability reform in China introduced the concept of lifelong accountability, which requires prosecutors to be responsible for the cases they handle by tying their reputation and career prospects to the quality of the cases, regardless of whether they still hold those positions. To explain this lifelong accountability, this article analyzes key issues surrounding prosecutorial accountability in the Chinese context, critically examining the accountability system before the reform and the transformations brought about by the new accountability regime. It argues that although lifelong accountability is expected to be a deterrent to prosecutorial misconduct, the feasibility of the accountability mechanism is subject to doubt. The reform tries to form collective responsibility, enabling frontline prosecutors to exercise greater autonomy. However, it has not led to a paradigm shift from the predominantly bureaucratic model to prosecutorial professionalism, which demonstrates profound distrust in the prosecutor’s judgment at a fundamental level.

An effective pandemic treaty requires accountability

An effective pandemic treaty requires accountability

Manajemen Kinerja Aparat Pengawas Intern Pemerintahan Dalam Penerapan Inovasi Pelayanan Publik The New Public Services Pada Pemerintah Kota Jayapura

The purpose of this study is to describe the correlation between internal apparatus performance management and public service innovation based on the New Public Service paradigm. The research method used is descriptive qualitative with a case study approach. The results of the study prove validly and reliably that, the Performance Management of the Government Internal Supervisory Apparatus (APIP) Jayapura City in the application of public service innovations with the New Public Service paradigm, has not been implemented at all. Conditions that cause an increase in symptoms and poverty for the lower class. The main obstacle faced in the Performance Management of the Government Internal Supervisory Apparatus (APIP) of Jayapura City is the non-optimal preparation and determination of a permanent Performance Plan. All efforts have been made by the APIP Performance Management in Jayapura City to overcome the obstacles faced, both internally by the APIP organization and externally at other Regional Apparatus Organizations, and Village Government organizations as well as the preparation and determination of the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD), both through coordination coordination Regional supervision directly or through online consultation, however, has not been optimal. This condition causes impartiality to the public interest and public services which has negative implications for the 2017 Jayapura City Performance Accountability Report (LAKIP) in the applicable Government Performance Accountability System (SAKIP).