An Investigation into the Impact of the Differential Implementation of Accountability Policy on the Teacher Experience

This dissertation investigates the impact of variations in accountability policy implementation on teachers. Past studies (Dee & Jacob, 2010, 2011) have investigated how the introduction of a new accountability policy impacts teachers, but they do not take into account the ongoing and extensive variations in how states implemented their individual policies. My paper examines how these variations, as quantified by a unique stringency measure created by Wong, Wing, Martin, and Krishnamachari (2017), impact the teacher experience during No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Utilizing this stringency measure, I estimate the causal effects of the changing and ever increasing difficulty of accountability policies on teacher labor force outcomes, perceptions, and attitudes. I also look at how varying levels of teacher experience, school urbanicity, and other characteristics moderate the effect of varying stringency levels. Overall, the results do not suggest an overwhelming impact of increasing stringency on teachers, however, future teachers’ decisions about going into teaching had a strong negative association with increasing stringency. The analysis also shows that stringency differentially impacted teacher outcomes based upon teacher and school characteristics, as well as, past accountability policies at the state level.