Gaming the Accountability System through Alternative School Transfers? Evidence from a Comparative Interrupted Time Series Analysis

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Abstract

Standardized testing has become a prominent tool used to hold public schools accountable for student achievement. No Child Left Behind (2002) scaled-up test-based accountability nationwide with its core requirements challenging schools to meet reading and math proficiency targets or face punitive and corrective actions. Studies have examined the perverse effects of accountability, finding that accountability pressure has incentivized schools to game the accountability system in an effort to increase school performance. Amongst the expansive gaming literature, no studies to date have considered
alternative school transferals as a potential avenue for gaming. This study asked whether alternative school enrollment growths are another possible unintended consequence of test-based accountability as “at risk” students may be transferred out of traditional public schools into alternative schools in an effort to meet testing targets. I use Comparative Interrupted Time Series modeling to assess the impact of NCLB on alternative school enrollment using varying degrees of accountability in states pre-NCLB to
sort states into treatment and comparison groups. I find that the most significant impact of NCLB on enrollment is seen in the years following enactment with accountability pressure attributed to a 6 to 8 percent growth per year in enrollment. This finding is sensitive to the inclusion of out-of-school suspensions as a control. Additional analyses reveal that out of school suspensions work as an intermediate pathway through which students are sent into alternatives under system of high-stakes
accountability.

Author

• Kenya Lee