Accountability, Ability and Disability: Gaming the System?

David N. Figlio, Lawrence S. Getzler

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

91 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper utilizes highly detailed student-level data to examine whether the initiation of a high-stakes test for accountability purposes affected Florida public schools' decisions regarding whether to assign students to special education. Using student-level fixed effects models, we find that schools systematically placed students from low socio-economic status backgrounds and historically low-performing students into special education categories that were at the time exempt from the accountability system. High-poverty schools are significantly more likely to reclassify low-achieving students than are more affluent schools. These results provide important implications for the design of school accountability systems.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationImproving School Accountability Chec-Ups or Choice
EditorsTimothy Gronberg, Dennis Jansen
Pages35-49
Number of pages15
DOIs
StatePublished - 2006

Publication series

NameAdvances in Applied Microeconomics
Volume14
ISSN (Print)0278-0984

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Economics, Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous)

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