Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education

While critics of test-based accountability systems are raising a glass to this recently released National Research Council report, they may want to cork the bottle while some bubbles remain in it. Authored by the NRC-established Committee on Incentives and Test-Based Accountability, this report set out to examine the nature of incentives and to determine the extent to which existing state accountability programs have raised student achievement. It begins with an overview of successful incentive-based structures (explaining their key aspects, like targeting incentives to those with the authority to make a difference). From this overview, the authors conclude that current accountability systems are not designed to make the most of their incentive structures. As such, state-based accountability systems a la NCLB produce only modest gains in student performance (the equivalent of a student moving from the 50th to the 53rd percentile). But, as Eric Hanushek points out, even these modest gains can produce big results in productivity; if history holds, such gains would translate into an additional $13 trillion in future GDP. The NRC report correctly declares that there is much room for improvement in test-based accountability systems, and calls for further experimentation and research. All in all, the report’s analysis (if not its promotional materials) conclude that test-based incentives could—with tweaks—work much better. And Gadfly can drink to that.