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Performance Standards and Employee Effort: Evidence From Teacher Absences

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  • Seth Gershenson

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. The probability of being frequently absent similarly decreased. These reductions in teacher absences were driven by within‐teacher increases in effort and by teachers in the bottom half of the effectiveness distribution. On average, only a modest amount of the achievement gains attributable to the increased accountability pressure are explained by the corresponding decline in teacher absences.

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  • Seth Gershenson, 2016. "Performance Standards and Employee Effort: Evidence From Teacher Absences," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(3), pages 615-638, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:35:y:2016:i:3:p:615-638
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/pam.21910
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    Cited by:

    1. Gershenson, Seth, 2021. "Identifying and Producing Effective Teachers," IZA Discussion Papers 14096, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Dora Gicheva, 2022. "Altruism and Burnout: Long Hours in the Teaching Profession," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 75(2), pages 427-457, March.
    3. Benhenda, Asma, 2022. "Absence, substitutability and productivity: Evidence from teachers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    4. Gershenson, Seth & Lindsay, Constance A. & Papageorge, Nicholas W. & Campbell, Romaine & Rendon, Jessica H., 2023. "Spillover Effects of Black Teachers on White Teachers' Racial Competency: Mixed Methods Evidence from North Carolina," IZA Discussion Papers 16258, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Kraft, Matthew A. & Brunner, Eric J. & Dougherty, Shaun M. & Schwegman, David J., 2020. "Teacher accountability reforms and the supply and quality of new teachers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • J48 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Particular Labor Markets; Public Policy
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education

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