The Economics of School Accountability

This article details the rationales behind school accountability systems and discusses the mechanisms through which these systems could improve student achievement in the impacted schools. Although school accountability systems provide incentives for increased test performance, they can also have unintended consequences, and the design of such accountability systems can play an important role in determining their success. We summarize the current evidence on the performance and unintended consequences of school accountability systems in the United States, though the issues are fundamentally similar elsewhere in the world.

Duke Scholars

Author Helen F. Ladd Sanford School of Public Policy