Does High-Stakes Accountability Improve Student Learning or Teach Schools to Game the System? The Chilean Case

• In Event: 32.082 - Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: 32.082-11 - Considering Culture and Creating Opportunities: International Perspectives on School Evaluation and Accountability

Abstract

This study examines the impact of a high-stakes test-based accountability system in Chile. It analyzes longitudinal census data from the Educational Quality Measurement System (SIMCE) and teachers’ questionnaires from 2002 to 2013. The data set includes more than 4 million 2nd, 4th, and 8th grade students and data for teachers nationwide in order to study how teachers respond to the implementation of the high-stakes accountability program (SEP program). We did not find evidence that teacher, after the implementation of SEP program, increase the use of academic strategies such as working more effectively, spending more time with students, or giving students more homework. Instead, schools increased the use non-academic strategies such as the exclusion of low-performing students from the test-taking pool

Author

• Alvaro Quezada Hofflinger, Universidad de La Frontera