THE CAPABILITY FOR ENHANCING ACCOUNTABILITY

Enhancing accountability is a key aspect of current demands for school reform. Much externally driven accountability has not been effective and internally motivated accountability requires specific organization al capacities. This article examines one pool; rural southeastern Amer ican school district to highlight the barriers to effective accountabi lity in a low-achieving district The study concludes that current acco untability models are incapable of altering local practices where need s are probably beyond the scope of educational policy making. Five the mes are identified as a set of interrelated micro (district only) and macro (local community) factors affecting efforts at reform. These inc lude racial discord, the power of poverty, the leadership mess, missin g ingredients, and unidentified urgency, which together create a dysfu nctional local cultural capital that results in an inability to foment significant change. Affecting any of these issues in isolation will n ot dramatically transform the stifling culture, as change will require altering the micro and macro themes in tandem.