TY  - JOUR
AU  - Figlio,David N.
AU  - Getzler,Lawrence S.
TI  - Accountability , Ability and Disability: Gaming the System
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9307
PY  - 2002
Y2  - November 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9307
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9307.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
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
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2003-06-01
AB  - The past several years have been marked by a general trend towards increased high-stakes testing for students and schools and test-based school accountability systems. There are many potential school responses to testing programs. This paper investigates the potential that schools respond by gaming the system through reshaping the test pool.  Using student-level panel data from six large counties in Florida, we study whether the introduction of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in 1996 led schools to reclassify students as disabled and therefore ineligible to contribute to the school's aggregate test scores. Employing student-level fixed effect models and a series of secular trends as controls, we find that schools tend to reclassify low income and previously low performing students as disabled at significantly higher rates following the introduction of the testing regime. Moreover, these behaviors are concentrated among the low income schools most likely to be on the margin of failing the state's accountability system.
ER  -