"We have to think about accountability in a very different way," says Douglas B. Reeves, chairman and founder of the Center for Performance Assessment and the International Center for Educational Accountability. "We have done a splendid job of holding nine-year-olds accountable. Let me suggest as a moral principle that we dare not hold kids any more accountable than we expect to hold ourselves."

At a recent forum hosted by the Principal's Center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Reeves outlined the principles of what he believes comprise effective school-based accountability systems. His remarks were edited for this issue:

Principle #1: Congruence

Objectives and strategies are sometimes developed in complete contravention to what the accountability system calls for. Accountability must be the unifying theme that draws strategy, rewards, recognition, and personnel evaluations together.