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Accountability-Driven School Reform: Are There Unintended Effects on Younger Children in Untested Grades?

Test-based accountability pressures have been shown to result in transferring less effective teachers into untested early grades and more effective teachers to tested grades. In this paper, we evaluate whether a state initiative to turnaround its lowest performing schools reproduced a similar pattern of assigning teachers and unintended, negative effects on the outcomes of younger students in untested grades. Using a sharp regression discontinuity design, we find consistent evidence of increased chronic absenteeism and grade retention in the first year. Also, the findings suggest negative effects on early literacy and reading comprehension in the first year of the reform that rebounded somewhat in the second year. Schools labeled low performing reassigned low effectiveness teachers from tested grades into untested early grades, though these assignment practices were no more prevalent in reform than control schools. Our results suggest that accountability-driven school reform can yield negative consequences for younger students that may undermine the success and sustainability of school turnaround efforts.

Keywords
school reform; test-based accountability; untested grades; early-grade outcomes; strategic staffing; teacher assignments
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/4b08-h585

EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:

Henry, Gary T., Shelby M. McNeill, and Erica Harbatkin. (). Accountability-Driven School Reform: Are There Unintended Effects on Younger Children in Untested Grades?. (EdWorkingPaper: 19-66). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/4b08-h585

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