Accountability in the broadest sense comes from the accounting industry and means to be held to account, that there is a record showing the use of income and resources to produce products, services and profit. As applied to education, accountability means many things, beginning with the global definition of ensuring that the resources spent on public education result in quality education. Schools, using funding from national, state and local sources, are being held accountable for the management, efficiency and use of those resources to produce a well-educated population. From a teacher's perspective, accountability means the work that you do with your students should result in their measurably improved achievement. Click here to see a checklist of helpful information related to teacher accountability. True accountability for public education involves a complicated mix of factors including teacher competency, school support, parental cooperation and student motivation. While most people associate accountability only with results from the FCAT and other tests, for teachers it really encompasses such things as being well-prepared in both subject matter knowledge and instructional strategies, being able to motivate students to engage in learning and achievement, and being able to communicate with parents effectively so that they, too, can contribute to individual and school success.