Is the rise in high school graduation rates real? High-stakes school accountability and strategic behavior

Douglas Harris, Lihan Liu, Nathan Barrett and Ruoxi Li

Labour Economics, 2023, vol. 82, issue C

Abstract: We show that publicly reported U.S. high school graduation rates have increased by 10-18 percentage points over the past two decades. Using national difference-in-differences analyses of state- and district-level variation in graduation rates, we also find that graduation accountability from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was likely a principal cause. Additional analysis of high school graduation exams, GEDs, credit recovery, and high school exit codes suggest that strategic behavior is not a primary explanation. This provides some of the first evidence to date that federal accountability has substantially increased the nation's stock of human capital

Keywords: Human capital production; high school graduation; school accountability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:82:y:2023:i:c:s0927537123000301

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102355

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