Tracing the Discourses of Accountability and Equity: The Case of the Grade 4 Literacy Test in Jamaica

In an attempt to understand how a narrowed version of accountability in the form of high-stakes assessment deepens inequity rather than improves educational equity, we examine three education documents in Jamaica using critical discourse analysis. Our two research questions were: How did each government document position the Grade Four Literacy Test? What did that positioning signify in terms of accountability and equity? Our analyses reveal that the discourse of equity becomes silenced or overpowered in the presence of powerful discourses of accountability. It is to this extent, we contend, that a narrower version of accountability in the form of high-stakes testing serves to compound and complicate inequities in education. We offer the view that a more comprehensive framework for accountability in which teachers are supported and literacy projects are comprehensive and sustained moves closer to achieving, over the long run, the equity that is needed in literacy at the primary level in Jamaica.