Focus School reforms emphasizing school-needs assessments and aligned technical assistance had no measurable impact on school performance.

States that receive federal waivers to the No Child Left Behind Act were required to implement reforms in designated “Focus Schools” that contribute to achievement gaps. We examine the performance effects of such “differentiated accountability” reforms in Louisiana. These Focus School reforms emphasized school-needs assessments and aligned technical assistance. These reforms may have also been uniquely high-powered because they were linked to a letter-based school-rating system.

This study examines the impact of these reforms in a sharp regression-discontinuity (RD) design. We find that, over each of 3 years, Louisiana’s Focus School reforms had no measurable impact on school performance.