Performance Standards and Employee Effort: Evidence from Teacher Absences

Authors

Seth Gershenson, American University

Publication Date

1-20-2015

Series

Upjohn Institute working paper ; 15-217

**Published Version**

In Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 35(3): 615-638

DOI

10.17848/wp15-217

Abstract

The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) increased accountability pressure in U.S. public schools by threatening to impose sanctions on Title 1 schools that failed to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) in consecutive years. Difference-in-difference estimates of the effect of failing AYP in the first year of NCLB on teacher effort in the subsequent year suggest that, on average, teacher absences in North Carolina fell by about 10 percent, and the probability of being absent 15 or more times fell by about 30 percent. Reductions in teacher absences were driven by within-teacher increases in effort and were larger among more effective teachers.

Issue Date

January 2015

Sponsorship

W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research Early Career Research Award 14-147-03, American University Faculty Research Support Grant

Subject Areas

EDUCATION; K-12 Education; Teachers and compensation