School Districts and Student Achievement

Matthew M. Chingos (), Grover J. Whitehurst () and Michael R. Gallaher ()
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Matthew M. Chingos: Brown Center on Education Policy Brookings Institution
Grover J. Whitehurst: Brown Center on Education Policy Brookings Institution
Michael R. Gallaher: Brown Center on Education Policy Brookings Institution

Education Finance and Policy, 2015, vol. 10, issue 3, 378-398

Abstract: School districts are a focus of education reform efforts in the United States, but there is very little existing research about how important they are to student achievement. We fill this gap in the literature using 10 years of student-level, statewide data on fourth- and fifth-grade students in Florida and North Carolina. A variance decomposition analysis based on hierarchical linear models indicates that districts account for only a small share (1 to 2 percent) of the total variation in student achievement. Nevertheless, the differences between lower- and higher-performing districts are large enough to be of practical and policy significance, with a one standard deviation difference in district effectiveness corresponding to about 0.11 standard deviations in student achievement (about nine weeks of schooling). District performance is generally stable over time, but there are examples of districts that have shown significant increases or decreases in performance.

Keywords: school districts; education reform; United States; U.S. education system; student achievement; Florida; North Carolina; district performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 I21 I24 I25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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