School Accountability and Student Wellbeing: Evidence from PISA 2018 in Finland, South Korea, and the United States
Open Access
- Author:
- Kang, Sangkyoo
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Theory and Policy
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 25, 2022
- Committee Members:
- Soo-yong Byun, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
David Baker, Major Field Member
Gerald Letendre, Outside Field Member
Rebecca Tarlau, Outside Unit Member
Gerald K Letendre, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- accountability
school climate
wellbeing
psychological cost
meritocracy
Finland
South Korea
the United States - Abstract:
- How to hold schools accountable has been a central question for policymakers around the globe. In response to the rising prominence of the public accountability movement, policymakers have devised a new currency for school monitoring and improvement: school performance data. While such data have been used to shift academic burden from students to schools, accountability pressures are supposed to be shared by all school actors, including students. Yet, school accountability uses and often abuses these data to make judgements about school effectiveness. Thus, although accountability is believed to ensure social transparency and efficiency, overloading accountability has drawn attention to its possible dysfunctional implications. This study extends the research on school accountability by examining the relationship between school accountability and student wellbeing in three countries: Finland, South Korea, and the United States. The present study regards schools as social ecologies in which macro policy frameworks can change school climate and in turn impact student wellbeing. Using PISA 2018, evidence of a small, indirect, and negative correlation between school accountability and student wellbeing was found in Finland and South Korea, suggesting school accountability may weaken student wellbeing via climate factors, such as peer competition and school belonging. Such a negative effect, however, was not found in the United States. The results serve as empirical documentation that has implications for policy and future research regarding the potential setbacks of school accountability policies.