Chapter 21: Leadership Infused with Professional Love: A Case of School Improvement Amidst the American Accountability System

State and federal accountability guidelines in the United State have historically privileged standardized test scores, within a high-stakes accountability system, as the sole measure of academic success (Waite et al., 2007). As a result, school leaders have become preoccupied with standards and the technical aspect of teaching and learning in order to remain in compliance with local, state, and federal performance targets (Edwards et al., 2020). More than ever, schools around the country have begun to operate from a rational-technical viewpoint, which stresses the importance of workplace coordination, predictability, and accountability for compliance. Yet, this often comes at the expense of excellence (Ingersoll, 2003). Louis Thomas et al. (2008) posited that the use of techno-rationalism, which is a high level of coordinated activities by state policymakers, is often used in the attempt to comprehensively address school reform. Techno-rationalism applies the ideology that social issues and problems can be controlled precisely and orderly, often through policy efforts and mandates that relate to objective assessment of social outcomes, specifically through quantified data tied to accountability (Cheng, 2015; Orr, 2007). To this end, educational leaders are tasked to support and develop teachers and staff so that teachers can in return then meet the needs of diverse learners and close academic achievement gaps among students, as measured by accountability assessments and test scores.