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This paper examines how school administrators reallocate resources to schools in response to marginal changes in accountability ratings. We study this through an analysis of budgetary changes for schools on the margin of distinct rating boundaries. By determining how close each school is to an accountability grade change we are able to conduct a regression discontinuity analysis on schools that are on either side of the sharp line that separates school ratings. If administrators care about accountability ratings on the margin we would expect to see changes in budgetary allocations that reward higher performing, or punish lower performing, schools. Using data in Texas from 1994 to 2002, we find evidence suggesting that schools with higher ratings received more funds than others, and the differential funds were targeted toward administration/training, counseling and extra-curricular activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social programs and mandates are usually studied in isolation, but unintended spillovers to other areas can impact individual behavior and social welfare. We examine the presence of spillovers from health care policy to the education sector by studying how health insurance coverage affects the education of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We leverage a state mandate that increased insurance coverage of ASD-related services, which often are provided by both the private sector and within public schools. The mandate primarily affected coverage for children with private health insurance, so we proxy for private insurance coverage with students' economic disadvantage status and estimate effects via triple-differences. While we find little change in ASD identification, the mandate crowds-out special education supports for students with ASD. A lack of short-run impact on achievement supports our crowd-out interpretation and indicates that the mandate had little net effect on the academic achievement of ASD students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study an intervention designed to overcome multiple hurdles faced by low-income, high-ability college students to determine if and how it affects students' long-term outcomes. UT-Austin's Longhorn Opportunity Scholars (LOS) program recruited at impoverished high schools and provided scholarships and enhanced support services to students who enrolled. We use administrative records for Texas public college students and find that LOS had large, positive effects on enrollment in and graduation from UT-Austin, masters' degree enrollment, and earnings. In particular, our results suggest that high achieving college attendees who went to a targeted high school saw UT-Austin enrollment increase by 71% and earnings 12 years after high school increase by 4.6% (an 82% increase among attendees). A somewhat similar program at Texas A&M called the Century Scholars Program had no effect on enrollment, but other contemporaneous enrollment shifts limit our analysis of other outcomes. The LOS results suggest that well designed, targeted recruitment programs with adequate supports can improve long-run outcomes for low-income students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]