Spare the Rod? the Dynamic Effects of Failing

This paper considers the effect of failing to make accountability standards on school performance in the long run and with repeated failure. We extend the typical static regression discontinuity approach to our dynamic context to separate an effect of failure from disparities in unobserved, time-varying school productivity that lead to different histories of failure. Using data on North Carolina public schools, we find that failing schools make achievement gains in response to failure, but the gains are short-lived and diminish with repeated failure. We then attempt to disentagle whether this is because schools are failing to implement long-lasting reforms or that sanctions inhibit their responses.