Accountability beyond the state: multi-level accountability in a private (minban) school-led network in China

As school networks expand globally, accountability mechanisms have significantly evolved. Yet, scholarly attention has mostly focused on Anglo-American contexts. Examining a private school-led education group in China, this research offers a more nuanced understanding of how multi-level accountability mechanisms operate in networked educational governance. Employing a qualitative case study approach, we collected data from school documents, field observations, and semi-structured interviews. Guided by Ehren and Perryman’s accountability framework, the analysis identifies accountability relationships operating across four interconnected levels. At the individual level, teachers are held to explicit professional and moral standards, reinforced through systemic instructional guidance and evaluation. At the organizational level, member schools operate within a tightly coupled system of routine internal inspection focused on school performance and implementation. At the network level, Group Y accounts to parents, local authorities, and higher-level Party bodies for educational quality, partnership delivery, and political alignment. At the community level, the evidence identifies accountability to partner local authorities alongside broader community responsiveness and legitimacy-building. These findings suggest that accountability in school networks is best understood as a multi-level and contextually embedded process, rather than a singular mechanism of external control. Our case therefore enriches international debates by showing how accountability in school networks can be reconfigured under conditions of public–private hybridity and strong state steering.