Highlights of 2011 - Institute for Policy Research - Northwestern ...

Education Policy
Closing Persistently Failing Schools
While many schools have succeeded at improving student
performance and proficiency rates on the standardized tests
mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, others fail to
reach proficiency year after year and face increasing penalties,
culminating with required “reconstitution.” This necessitates
either dramatically restructuring or completely closing the
schools, which disproportionately serve disadvantaged and
inner-city populations. Schanzenbach and colleagues Lisa
Barrow and Kyung-Hong Park are analyzing longitudinal data on
the standardized test scores of Chicago Public School students
since 1993. They are investigating how school closures can have
an impact on the students actually attending those schools,
particularly whether the affected students perform better
at their new, non-failing schools. The study will better inform
school administrators trying to decide whether to close a
persistently underperforming school. This project is supported
by a grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation.
Accountability Pressure and Practice
While numerous recent authors have studied the effects of
school accountability systems on student test performance and
school “gaming” of accountability incentives, little attention has
been paid to substantive changes in instructional policies and
practices resulting from school accountability pressures. This lack
of research is primarily due to the unavailability of appropriate
data to carry out such an analysis. A study co-authored by IPR
education economist David Figlio offers new evidence from
a five-year survey conducted of a census of public schools in
Florida, coupled with detailed administrative data on student
performance. Figlio and his colleagues show that schools facing
accountability pressure changed their instructional practices in
meaningful ways. In addition, with Princeton’s Cecilia Rouse,
Urban Institute’s Jane Hannaway, and Dan Goldhaber of the
University of Washington, Figlio presents medium-run evidence
of the effects of school accountability on student test scores,
concluding that a significant portion of these test score gains
can likely be attributed to the changes in school policies and
practices that they uncover in their surveys. The study is
forthcoming in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy,
and it was supported by grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation and Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
the likelihood that families will enroll their children in private
schools. The researchers also show that accountability systems
influence where new residents to a metropolitan area choose
to reside. The results are particularly pronounced in those
states with low assessment standards, where large fractions
of students—and therefore, schools—pass the accountability
standards. The results differ by family type. The MacArthur
Foundation and IES provided funding. Figlio is Orrington Lunt
Professor of Education and Social Policy and of Economics.
Single-Sex Schools and Achievement
Does being in an all-male or all-female school lead to better
education outcomes? Amendments to Title IX regulations
banning sex discrimination in education have made it easier to
provide single-sex education in the United States since 2006,
but little credible evidence exists on how such schools affect
achievement. For the first time, the topic was examined within
a quasi-experimental design conducted by Jackson. It uses a
unique data set from Trinidad and Tobago, where almost all
of its 123 secondary schools, including the most selective, are
public, and approximately one-quarter are single sex. Jackson
compared scores from two nationwide tests to evaluate
outcomes, finding that although students with similar incoming
characteristics at single-sex schools appeared to perform better,
School Accountability and Residency
Using U.S. Census microdata, Figlio and his colleagues are
investigating whether school accountability systems affect
families’ decisions about school choice and about where
they reside. Exploiting time differences in the introduction
of a state-level school accountability system, the researchers
confirm evidence for school accountability systems increasing
IPR graduate research assistants Claudia Zapata (far right) and
Kelly Iwanaga Becker answer a question on how high school
students navigate applying for college scholarships.
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