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

• In Event: 43.077 - MTCC Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 43.077-6 - Teacher Effectiveness and Teacher Accountability

Abstract

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) required schools to make yearly improvements in the performance of racial/ethnic subgroups; little is known, however, about the impacts of this “subgroup-specific accountability” on teachers or principals. Using nationally representative data on teachers and principals, along with detailed data on the initial implementation of NCLB, this study uses a regression discontinuity design to explore the effects of NCLB’s subgroup-specific accountability on teachers’ job assignments, turnover, and attrition, as well as on principal’s job assignments. Preliminary analyses find some evidence that schools manipulated their numbers of students in tested subgroups during the first two years of NCLB. Implications for the design of accountability systems that help close racial/ethnic achievement gaps are discussed.

Author

• Matthew Shirrell, The George Washington University