Chapter 1: A Framework For Assessing The Impact Of Education Reforms On School Capacity: Insights from Studies of High-Stakes Accountability Initiatives

This chapter offers a framework for assessing how education policy initiatives may affect a school’s capacity to improve its performance. Drawing on the theo retical literature regarding school capacity and case studies of highstakes accountability policies, the authors develop and illustrate a framework that includes both a resource dimension and a productivity dimension. They argue that this dual dimensional construction of school capacity encourages a more complete exploration of the manner in which education reform policies might alter school capacity.