The Effects of Accountability Pressure on Student Achievement, Mobility, and School Attachment

Jennifer Jennings, New York University
Peter Rich, New York University

School contexts are increasingly shaped by test-based accountability policies, which aim to improve student achievement and to close achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged groups. Notably absent from this literature is the study of how these reforms have affected important outcomes beyond test scores, such as student mobility and school attachment. In this paper, we analyze unique student-level panel data for all students enrolled in the Chicago Public Schools between 1997-2002 to determine how external pressure to increase student test scores affects students’ math and reading achievement, school mobility, and school attachment; how these effects vary by race, gender, and socioeconomic status; and through what mechanisms accountability pressure produces these effects.