Performance-based accountability in Qatar: a state in progress |
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| Authors: | Sonia Ben Jaafar |
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| Institution: | EduEval Educational Services , Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
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| Abstract: | It has become a normative practice to include Performance-Based Accountability (PBA) policies in educational reforms to foster school changes that enhance student learning and success. There is considerable variation in PBA models that have an important impact on how they operate in schools. It is, therefore, important to characterize PBA models in different contexts. This article describes and categorizes the Qatari PBA model using a five-dimensional framework previously employed in Canada and the UK. The State of Qatar is a small rich developing country in the Arabian Gulf that introduced a wholesale educational reform in 2004. Although the characteristics of the Qatari PBA model are shared with those of Western systems, the Qatari PBA model does not fit into the previously described categories. Policy inconsistencies surfaced within the Qatar PBA model in terms of structure, consequential intent, and expectations of professional involvement. The tensions are rooted in a PBA model that assumes a high level of professional accountability interacting with the reality of system-wide capacity issues. The implementation of a coherent PBA model in policy and practice will require developing past this early phase of educational reform. |
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| Keywords: | assessment accountability policy Middle East education reform |
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