Assessing Public Sector Performance Reforms and the Plight of Disadvantaged Citizens

Abstract

Performance management proposes to use market reforms to enhance the quality of public services provided to vulnerable citizens. However, the ability to accomplish this goal is largely unsubstantiated. In the field of education, the No Child Left Behind Act mandated the development of performance reform guidelines that held educators accountable for disadvantaged students outcomes. This research assesses the quality of states’ NCLB provisions that targeted minority and vulnerable student performance as well as change in outcomes. It reveals that performance reforms holding educators accountable while also enhancing performance is limited by organized employee groups and enhanced by past performance, political affiliation, preexisting voluntary performance reforms.