Ranking schools: a step toward increased accountability or a mere discriminatory practice?

Ana Reis, Carmo Seabra and Luis Nunes

Nova SBE Working Paper Series from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion of the effects of published school rankings based on average scores obtained by students on national exams. We study the effectiveness of this (low-stakes) accountability mechanism; we analyze whether students react to these rankings, by moving in or out of high-schools according to their scores and examine the movements of closing of schools. Our results suggest that families react strongly to published rankings. We also look at the changes in the socio-economic background of students of poorly performing schools in order to evaluate whether the publication of rankings has increased inequality, as feared by many observers. According to our results, published rankings do in fact reinforce stratification by income.

Keywords: School accountability; school rankings (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H42 I21 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unl:unlfep:wp567

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