Editing Accountability (section)

== In education ==
As defined by National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), accountability is "[a] program, often legislated, that attributes the responsibility for student learning to teachers, school administrators, or students. Test results typically are used to judge accountability, and often consequences are imposed for shortcomings."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ncme.org/ncme/NCME/Resource_Center/Glossary/NCME/Resource_Center/Glossary1.aspx?hkey=4bb87415-44dc-4088-9ed9-e8515326a061#anchorA |title=Glossary of Important Assessment and Measurement Terms |publisher=National Council on Measurement in Education |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722194028/http://www.ncme.org/ncme/NCME/Resource_Center/Glossary/NCME/Resource_Center/Glossary1.aspx?hkey=4bb87415-44dc-4088-9ed9-e8515326a061#anchorA |archive-date=22 July 2017 |access-date=6 December 2019}}</ref>

Student accountability is traditionally based on school and classroom rules, combined with sanctions for infringement.

In contrast, some educational establishments such as [[Sudbury Valley School|Sudbury schools]] believe that students are personally responsible for their acts, and that traditional schools do not permit students to choose their course of action fully; they do not permit students to embark on the course, once chosen; and they do not permit students to suffer the consequences of the course, once taken. Freedom of choice, freedom of action, freedom to bear the results of action are considered the three great freedoms that constitute personal responsibility. Sudbury schools claim that {{"'}}[[Value (ethics)|Ethics]]' is a course taught by life experience". They adduce that the essential ingredient for acquiring values—and for moral action—is personal responsibility, that schools will become involved in the teaching of morals when they become communities of people who fully respect each other's right to make choices, and that the only way the schools can become meaningful purveyors of ethical values is if they provide students and adults with real-life experiences that are bearers of moral import. Students are given complete responsibility for their own education and the school is run by a [[direct democracy]] in which students and staff are equals.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite book | last=Greenberg | first=Daniel | title=Education in America: A View from Sudbury Valley | chapter='Ethics' is a Course Taught By Life Experience| publisher=The Sudbury Valley School | date=1992 | isbn=978-1-888947-07-6 | pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YQn_BA76TF4C&pg=PA60 60]–62}}
|2={{cite web|last=Greenberg|first=Daniel|year=1987|url=http://www.sudval.com/05_underlyingideas.html#09|title=Back to Basics|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511175026/http://www.sudval.com/05_underlyingideas.html#09 |archive-date=11 May 2011}}
|3={{citation|last=Feldman|first=Jay|year=2001|url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED453128|title=The Moral Behavior of Children and Adolescents at a Democratic School}}
|4={{cite book | title=The Crisis in American Education: An Analysis and a Proposal | publisher=The Sudbury Valley School | date=1970 | isbn=978-1-888947-05-2 |chapter=Law and Order: Foundations of Discipline| pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=MAqxzEss8k4C&pg=PA49 49]–55}}
|5={{cite book | last=Greenberg | first=Daniel | title=Education in America: A View from Sudbury Valley | publisher=The Sudbury Valley School | date=1992 | isbn=978-1-888947-07-6 | chapter=Democracy Must be Experienced to be Learned | pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YQn_BA76TF4C&pg=PA103 103]–107}}
|6={{cite journal|last=Reiss|first=Steven|year=2010|journal=Psychology Today|title=Whatever Happened to Personal Responsibility?}}
}}</ref>