Do School Report Cards Produce Accountability Through the Ballot Box?. (14th April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kogan, Vladimir; Lavertu, Stéphane; Peskowitz, Zachary
• Is Part Of: Journal of policy analysis and management. Volume 35:issue 3(2016)
• Page Start: 639
• Page End: 661
• Publication Date: 2016-04-14
• Subjects: Policy sciences -- Periodicals; Political planning -- United States -- Periodicals; United States -- Social policy -- Periodicals; 353
• DOI: 10.1002/pam.21912
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0276-8739

Abstract

Abstract: Public education has been transformed by the widespread adoption of accountability systems that involve the dissemination of school district performance information. Using data from Ohio, we examine if elections serve as one channel through which these accountability systems might lead to improvements in educational quality. We find little evidence that poor performance on widely disseminated state and federal indicators has an impact on school board turnover, the vote share of sitting school board members, or superintendent tenure, suggesting that the dissemination of district performance information puts little (if any) electoral pressure on elected officials to improve student achievement.