The Effects of Subgroup-Specific Accountability on Teacher Job Assignments, Turnover, and Attrition

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early-Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

This study uses nationally representative data from the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and Teacher Follow-Up Survey (TFS), along with detailed data on the initial implementation of NCLB, to explore the effects of NCLB’s subgroup-specific accountability on teachers’ job assignments, turnover, and attrition. To identify the causal effects of the policy on teachers, the study takes advantage of the fact that NCLB did not hold all schools accountable for the performance of their student subgroups; instead, NCLB required each state to set a minimum subgroup size cutoff, which was the minimum number of students in a subgroup that were required for that subgroup’s performance to “count” in accountability determinations for a particular school. This study uses these cutoffs to implement a regression discontinuity (RD) design to examine whether holding schools accountable for various student subgroups during NCLB’s first two years affected teachers’ job assignments, turnover, and attrition. This study also examines the heterogeneity of these effects across teachers of various races, and explores one possible mechanism for these effects: teachers’ and principals’ job assignments, including their job responsibilities and hours devoted to various aspects of their work.

The study explores the following research questions:

1. What were the effects of the initial implementation of NCLB’s subgroup-specific accountability on teachers’ job assignments, turnover, and attrition?
2. What were the effects of the initial implementation of NCLB’s subgroup-specific accountability on principals’ job assignments?
3. Did these effects differ by teacher and principal race/ethnicity?

With the recent signing into law of the Every Student Succeeds Act, the design of future accountability systems that aim to close racial/ethnic and socioeconomic achievement gaps will largely take place at the state level (Schanzenbach et al., 2016). While devolving much of the responsibility for the design and implementation of accountability policy to the states, ESSA has preserved the mandate that states must include in their accountability systems a means to measure and address racial/ethnic and socioeconomic gaps in student achievement (Schanzenbach et al., 2016). With the focus of accountability policymaking shifted to the state level, it is now more crucial than ever that states receive guidance on the best ways to design accountability systems that help, rather than hinder, efforts to close these achievement gaps. Learning from one of the largest and most ambitious educational accountability policies in history—the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001—is crucial if states are to design accountability systems that have the desired effects. The study described here will provide nationwide evidence on whether subgroup-focused policies affect teacher job assignments, turnover, and attrition, and will inform the design of future accountability systems that aim to close racial/ethnic gaps in student achievement.

Author

• Matthew A. Shirrell, The George Washington University