The Effect of Performance Management on Civic Engagement at U.S High Schools

• In Event: Poster Session: Public Administration & Law and Courts
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: New Research on Public Performance and Management

Abstract

Performance Management has been criticized for omitting democratic values (Piotrowski and Rosenbloom 2002; Radin 2006; Rosenbloom 2007). A prime example is the assertion that test-based accountability in US education can undermine skills and norms forging civic engagement (Rothstein, Jacobsen, and Wilder 2008). Civic engagement refers to “working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities... It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes” (Ehrlich 2000, Vi). The purpose of test-based accountability is to ensure that students will make demonstrable progress in achieving standardized knowledge and skills, and will eventually be able to compete in the global economy (Gross and Goertz 2005; Mehta 2013). However, using tests as the primary means to measure performance can crowd out important educational activities not directly related to test results (Rothstein, Jacobsen, and Wilder 2008). Alarming to the future of US democracy is the marginalization of activities enhancing students’ civic skills and their endorsement of citizenship norms. Civic skills are “communication and organization skills that allow citizens to use time and money more effectively in political life” (Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1995, 304). Citizenship norms refer to “a shared set of expectation about the citizen’s role in politics ” (Dalton 2008, 78). Such marginalization can lead to the underdevelopment of civic skills and weak endorsement of citizenship norms. Students with weak civic skills and slipping sense of civic duty are less likely to participate in democracy when they become adults (Musick and Wilson 2008). Low levels of civic engagement not only cede more power to organized interest groups, but also hinder performance improvement and the restoration of public trust in government, the purpose of advancing performance management in public organizations (Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1995; Wichowsky and Moynihan 2008).

Although the negative effects of performance management on civic engagement warrant consideration, there is a dearth of large-N empirical studies examining the effects of performance management on civic engagement. Anecdotes and interviews in support of teachers “teaching to the test” are in abundant supply, but such evidence may not paint the full picture regarding the impact of performance management on civic engagement. In spite of the possibility that implementing performance management at schools crowds out activities that promote a sense of civic duty and offer opportunities to develop civic skills, performance management can also improve civic participation. Studies found that performance management improved cognitive abilities such as reading and math skills (Dee and Jacob 2011; Hanushek and Raymond 2005). The resource model for civic participation suggests that the improvements in these skills can enhance civic engagement (Campbell 2006; Musick and Wilson 2008; Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1995). Hence, an assessment focusing only on the potentially negative impact of performance management on civic engagement can be unbalanced.

The purpose of this study is to fill the gap in the systematic examination on the effect of performance management on civic engagement. The data are from the base year (2002) and first follow-up (2004) Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS). The sample consists of 8832 students from 572 public schools where the controversy about performance management is the most heated (Podgursky and Springer 2007).

Using structural equation modeling (SEM), the mediating effects of performance management in 2002 on civic engagement in 2004 through human capital, individual endorsement of citizenship norms, opportunities to develop civic skills were analyzed. The analysis controlled for commonly cited significant predictors for civic participation, such as relative socioeconomic status, racial heterogeneity, social capital (Nie, Junn, and Stehlik-Barry 1996; Putnam 2000, 2007). Furthermore, this research contributes to the methods of controlling for response biases in analyzing survey related to public management. Controlling for these response styles partly mitigate the common source bias, a threat to internal validity in public management research (Meier and O’Toole 2013).

Initial findings indicated that performance management significantly decreased civic engagement through a negative indirect effect on the opportunities to develop civic skills, but it also significantly increased civic engagement through its positive effect on human capital. The indirect effect through human capital was larger than the indirect effect through the opportunities to develop civic skills. These results imply that the mission of developing a skilled workforce can be compatible with the mission of forging democratic citizenship at U.S public high schools.

Author

• Xu Han