School Responses To High-stakes Testing

Abstract

This paper analyzes school's responses to high stakes testing. Using a grade level panel dataset from Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) for reading and math tests for 2003 through 2006, to find schools responses to failure. I find that there is a tendency for schools to shift resources from subjects that they pass to subjects that they fail. I classify schools' responses as either substitution responses or scale responses. A school has a substitution response if, when it fails to meet the state's required passing rate threshold for one subject for one cohort of students, it shifts resources to that subject for that cohort of students and away from subjects and cohorts for which its passing rate is above the threshold. Scale responses correspond to increases in resources for all subjects for a cohort of students that fail a subject. I find evidence for both substitution responses and scale responses, and I find that substitution responses are larger than scale responses.