Public education systems have come under increasing criticism in recent years for their far-from-satisfactory achievements. This criticism has not excluded the Israeli education system, which has been called upon repeatedly to explain why children in the State of Israel do not rank higher in international tests, why the dropout rate is so high, why student violence is on the rise, and why the gaps between children in different population groups are increasing, despite the enormous resources the state is investing in public education.

Key factors in improving the education system’s achievement are the willingness of educators to accept professional accountability and the system’s ability to make them accountable. But the system’s structural constraints and limited possibilities for action hamper such efforts and enable those who seek to evade responsibility to do so. Educational Accountability: Between Consolidation and Dissolution moves between the structural characteristics of the Israeli education system and the processes taking place within it, on the one hand, and the views of educators regarding accountability, on the other. On the basis of theoretical models and interviews with educators at the school, district, municipal, and national levels, the book examines the educators’ views on accountability and how these views shape their professional behavior. The quality of information and how it is transmitted within the system were selected as a prism for this examination. The hypothesis is that in the absence of clear, transparent, relevant, and up-to-date information, both the willingness to be accountable and the possibility of requiring accountability are limited. Consequently, the articles in the book use the analysis of information produced within the system and how it is transmitted to estimate the potential for accountability among educators.