Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education

Posted by on June 06, 2011

They simply don’t work

A new report from the National Academies of Science finds that test-based incentives have not consistently generated positive effects on student achievement. The report examines incentive programs that impose sanctions or offer rewards for students, teachers, or schools on the basis of students’ test performance. School-level incentives — like those of No Child Left Behind — produced some of the larger effects observed, but gains were concentrated in elementary-grade mathematics, and were small in comparison with hoped-for improvements. Evidence also suggests that high school exit exam programs decrease the rate of high school graduation without increasing student achievement. The report also confirms that attaching incentives to test scores can encourage teachers to focus narrowly on material tested, resulting in only partial knowledge of subject matter by students; test scores often then give an inaccurate picture of what students actually know. Policymakers and researchers should design and evaluate alternate approaches to using test-based incentives, according to the report. Use of incentives should be rigorously evaluated to determine what works and what does not. In addition, research on and development of new incentive-based approaches must not displace investment in other aspects of the education system, such as improvements in curricula and instructional methods, which are important complements to the incentives themselves.

See the report: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12521