Implementation of the Alberta Accountability Framework

Abstract

In 1994 the government of Alberta introduced legislation that mandated accountability for all government departments, including education.  At the same time, the provincial budget cut dollars to education by 12.4%.  The message to educators was clear: reduce education costs while retaining and improving education results.  The impact of these directives was dramatic.  The Alberta ministry of education closed regional offices and reduced staff.  School boards, through amalgamations, were reduced in number from 140 to sixty. One intent of the accountability legislation was to align classroom, school and jurisdiction goals with provincial education goals and priorities.  The alignment was monitored through Three-Year Plans and Annual Education Results Reports that were submitted to the ministry by school jurisdictions.  At the same time, decision-making was decentralized to the school level and site-based administrators were given the responsibility of developing school plans that reflected jurisdictional and provincial education goals. 

This paper summarizes the development of the provincial accountability framework and reports an action research project that investigated the implementation of this framework from a field perspective. The paper is a synthesis of four papers by different authors.  The four papers have been merged to present a more comprehensive story of the development and implementation of the Alberta accountability framework.