School Response to District Classification of Certain Students as "Priority": Test Score Effects Under Shifting Accountability Systems

• In Event: 16.060 - Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: 16.060-7 - Test-Based Accountability and Achievement Gaps

Abstract

Many have criticized recent federal education policy for measuring school performance based on proficiency levels because it incentivizes schools to focus on marginal students closest to passing at the expense of low- and high-performing students (i.e., educational triage). The empirical evidence for triage is relatively slim, in part due to limitations of administrative data. This study uses data from a district that used multiple student performance metrics to explicitly identify and encourage schools to target resources to students close to meeting proficiency. The identification strategy—multiple assignment variable regression discontinuity—estimates the causal effect of being identified as a marginal student.

Author

• Emily C. Kern, Vanderbilt University