Practicing performance accountability in US adult basic education: a community case study

The purpose of this chapter is to explore how adult basic education (ABE) providers in one U.S. city perceived, implemented, and shaped federal US performance accountability policy in their programs for adults who receive English language education services. Critical sociocultural policy analysis and the case study approach guide this qualitative investigation. We argue that standardised testing provides only a partial glimpse of adults’ progress pertaining to English language proficiency and their civic, social, and other goals. ABE providers in this study called for redefining measurable skills gain to include adult learners’ multi-faceted goals while also adopting practices that meant devoting resources to demonstrating gains as prescribed by the accountability policy. Ultimately, testing was transformed as primarily a means of retaining funding rather than one of measuring their own program quality or student progress.