Poster Paper: The Impact of School Failure on Non-Achievement Outcomes

Saturday, November 8, 2014
Ballroom B (Convention Center)

*Names in bold indicate Presenter

John B. Holbein and Helen Ladd, Duke University
When schools fail, how do students react? In this paper we examine whether standards-based accountability affects non-achievement, behavioral measures of student success. Using regression discontinuity we examine the causal effect of school failure on student misbehaviors in the school. We find that failure increases violent and sexual offenses and suspensions in the year after failure. This effect is especially pronounced when failing schools are threatened with immediate sanction. These results paint a troublesome picture of standards based accountability: potentially leaving students behind in behavioral skills so important to later life success.