| David Figlio
University of Florida
Inside the "black box": School responses to accountability pressure
FINAL REPORT:
This paper marks the first attempt to describe how schools are changing their instructional policies and practices in response to the pressures introduced by school accountability systems. This is also the first cross-state study on institutional responses to accountability systems. In this work, data from the Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS) of 1993-94 and 1999-2000 is used to investigate the nature of school responses. During this window a large number of states introduced new accountability systems, and the SASS is a sufficiently large data set such that school districts are well-represented in both rounds of the SASS. The author uses individual teacher responses to the SASS questionnaires to measure the effects of school accountability on instructional practice along a variety of dimensions --time allocation, cross-classroom resource allocation, training for new teachers and the utilization of testing data in instruction.
Utilizing school district-level fixed effects models, the author finds strong evidence that schools respond to accountability pressure in ways that manifest themselves in the classroom. Evidence is not found that schools assign more experienced or better qualified teachers to high-stakes classrooms, or that schools subject to accountability pressure treat their rookie teachers differently along a number of dimensions. The author does find that teachers in schools subject to accountability pressure work harder than their counterparts elsewhere. The study also finds that these teachers spend more time on academic subjects in their classroom, and that they concentrate their attention on the academic subjects that are the topics of the tests used for accountability purposed. In states where only reading and mathematics are tested, teachers substitute away from science and social studies/history instruction in favor of language arts and mathematics instruction, while in states where a wider array of subjects are tested, this time reallocation does not occur. This time reallocation is particularly pronounced in the high-stakes grades for schools. In addition, teachers in schools subject to accountability pressure are more likely to utilize state or locally-prescribed test scores for instructional purposes.
It is unclear whether these estimated responses are positive or negative. Take the time allocation response, for instance. The set of tests covered may reflect state priorities for education. If the intent of policy-makers was to see tested subjects emphasized, these results indicate that such a goal was at least partially successful. These results, therefore, have strong policy implications: Since teachers apparently use state tests and accountability systems to help shape their time allocations, group students and develop curricula, policy-makers must take these responses into account when designing these systems to ensure that the specific skills and topic coverage that is more important for the state are reflected in the assessments that the state uses to measure success.
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