District Changes in Student Achievement and Local Practice under Georgia's District and School Flexibility Policy

In 2007 Georgia instituted a flexibility policy through which school districts enter into performance contracts with the state, receiving waivers from state rules, provisions, and guidelines in exchange for agreeing to meet annual accountability targets. The performance contracts are intended to incentivize innovations that increase achievement among all students. Between 2008/09 and 2016/17, 178 of Georgia's 180 districts entered into a performance contract. The Georgia Department of Education requested an analysis of how student achievement changed after districts adopted a performance contract and what factors were related to those changes. The department also requested information on how districts used their performance contract to prioritize innovations in local practice. Overall, the study found little evidence that changes in student achievement coincided with adopting a performance contract but found significant variation in changes in achievement across districts, once other factors were adjusted for. Changes in achievement were largely unrelated to district characteristics, including urbanicity, timing of performance contract adoption, and district type, or features of the performance contract. District leaders reported prioritizing innovations related to college and career readiness, teacher certification requirements, instructional spending, and funding for school improvement after adopting a performance contract. Leaders perceived broad benefits from the priority innovations they identified, especially for staff and school climate, but also indicated that waivers were not required to implement many of the innovations. Despite the perceived benefits, changes in achievement were largely unrelated to the academic, human resources, and financial innovations that district leaders reported prioritizing after adopting a performance contract. [For the appendixes, see ED609822; for the study snapshot, see ED609824.]