User Clip: Transparency and Accountability

Fukuyama discusses public institutions, including public schools, in terms of "transaction volume", how many decisions are made, and how easy it is to measure the impact of those decisions. This discussion has important implications for education, and educational leaders. It asks us to consider what kinds of knowledge do we need to be effective in complicated contexts like public schools? Central banks have clear decisions and consequences. Public schools make thousands of decisions, many of which are difficult to specify. Transparency seeks to make clear what is happening with what outcomes, and accountability takes a carrot and stick to those outcomes. The logic of accountability is a poor fit for high transaction-volume contexts where measurement is imprecise. Indeed, what kind of knowledge do we need? Contextural knowledge, historical, cultural, and so forth. For this reason, the concept of "best practices" can be highly problematic. close