NBER: When teachers and their schools are held accountable for the educational performance of their pupils and face consequences when the children do not measure up to goals, student grades in reading and mathematics do improve. However, the insistence by many American states in the 1990s on educational standards and testing for primary school students has not narrowed the educational gap between blacks and whites, although it did trim the Hispanic-white achievement gap.

These are the key findings of Does School Accountability Lead to Improved Student Performance? (free) by Eric Hanushek and Margaret Raymond. Their analysis of state achievement growth, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (some times referred to as the "Nation's report card"), is highly relevant to the drive by the federal government to improve educational performance across the nation. A central campaign theme of George W. Bush in his first bid for the White House was to expand educational accountability to all states. This goal was put into law with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Click here to continue reading.

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