California’s Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA): Evaluation Findings and Implications

September 2003
The Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA) outlines a comprehensive process for ranking schools based on specific criteria and improvement over time. When schools fall short of the expectations, the state may intervene—first with assistance and later with sanctions. Successful schools will be rewarded. The PSAA has three main components: the Academic Performance Index (API), the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program (II/USP), and the Governor’s Performance Award program (GPA).

A new evaluation of the PSAA, charged with assessing both the implementation and effects of the two PSAA school programs, the II/USP and the GPA, shows that the program has successfully focused statewide attention on student achievement, but perhaps not for the reasons initially anticipated by state lawmakers. The evaluation, Evaluation Study of the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program and the High Achieving/Improving Schools Program of the Public Schools Accountability Act of 1999, was required by law, and was conducted by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) with support from EdSource and Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE).

The data and analyses from the evaluation demonstrate that the PSAA, and the Academic Performance Index (API) it created, have successfully focused statewide attention on student achievement. This attention has likely contributed to the substantial increases in average API scores across California schools, especially elementary schools, since the PSAA was passed. At the same time, the findings indicate that the reward and intervention programs included in the PSAA had little additional impact on improving average test scores in participating schools. The lack of average effect, however, masks the very large variation in how schools fared in the program and the influential role that local school districts played in fostering improvement in their low performing schools. The evaluation found that the ability of schools to develop a coherent instructional program was key to their meeting and surpassing API growth targets after the initial planning year, and that this ability was often based on support from their districts.

For a summary of the key findings of the evaluation, and a discussion of the implications of these findings, download this Evaluation Brief for free (PDF).