Consequences of a State Accountability Program: Examining Relationships Between School Performance Gains and Teacher, Student, and School Variables

Most states are implementing statewide assessment programs that are being used for high-stakes purposes. Some of these assessments involve performance-based tasks that are assumed not only to serve as motivators for improving student achievement and learning, but also to encourage instructional strategies and techniques in the classroom that are more consistent with reform-oriented educational outcomes. Given these high expectations, more comprehensive and direct evidence for the consequences of the assessments needs to be gathered. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between (a) changes in the scores from the Maryland State Performance Assessment Program from 1993 to 1998 and (b) classroom instruction and assessment practices, student learning and motivation, students' and teachers' beliefs about and attitudes toward the assessment, and a school characteristic. Several factors from each of these dimensions were found to explain a significant amount of variability in school performance over time using growth models.