TY  - JOUR
AU  - Donovan,Colleen
AU  - Figlio,David N.
AU  - Rush,Mark
TI  - Cramming: The Effects of School Accountability on College-Bound Students
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12628
PY  - 2006
Y2  - October 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12628
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12628.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Colleen Donovan
2545 Hillegass Ave
Berkeley, CA 94704
E-Mail: donovanc@econ.berkeley.edu

David N. Figlio
Institute for Policy Research
Northwestern University
2040 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
Tel: 847-467-1503
Fax: 847-491-9916
E-Mail: figlio@northwestern.edu

Mark Rush
University of Florida
Warrington College of Business
Department of Economics
P.O. Box 117140
320 MAT
Gainesville, FL  32611-7140
E-Mail: mark.rush@cba.ufl.edu
M3  - presented at "Education Program Meeting", April 27, 2006
AB  - This paper is the first to explore the effects of school accountability systems on high-achieving students' long-term performance. Using exceptional data from a large highly-selective state university, we relate school accountability pressure in high school to a student's university-level grades and study habits. We exploit a change in the state's accountability system in 1999 that led to some schools becoming newlythreatened by accountability pressure and others becoming newly-unthreatened to identify the effects of accountability pressure. We find that an accountability system based on a low-level test of basic skills apparently led to generally reduced performance by high-achieving students, while an accountability system based on a more challenging criterion-referenced exam apparently led to improved performance in college on mathematics and other technical subjects. Both types of systems are associated with increased "cramming" by students in college. The results indicate that the nature of an accountability system can influence its effectiveness.
ER  -