State Governance and Educational Outcomes in the United States

This paper develops an institutional theory of educational performance that extends Chubb and Moe's (1988; 1990) logic from local schools to the state level. Our analysis flows from one observation and one assumption. The observation is that the state institutions governing public education are subject to varying degrees of democratic control. The assumption, which serves as our primary research hypothesis, is that as state institutions governing education are subject to more democratic control, it will be more difficult for states to achieve desired policy outcomes. Specifically, we explore state results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 4th and 8th grade reading and math. Overall, we find somewhat mixed results but clear indications that the level of democratic control is indeed related to state educational outcomes. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 7-10, 2005, Chicago, IL. Many thanks to David Kysilko who provided key data on state governing institutions. For financial assistance from the College of William and Mary, Manna is grateful to the Faculty Research Committee and O'Hara thanks the Roy R. Charles Center.