NCLB aims to accomplish its goals by holding public schools accountable for their
students’ achievement. Under NCLB, public schools must test all students annually in math and reading in grades 3 though 8. Schools face corrective action or complete restructuring if their students fail to meet state standards for academic progress several years in a row. NCLB also makes it easier for students in low-performing schools to attend better schools or to obtain free tutoring.
Yet the law wisely gave states several years to comply with its most critical requirements. Not until the 2005-2006 school year, for example, did states need to have a “highly qualified” teacher in every classroom and reading and math testing in grades 3 through 8. Consequently, it is still too early to assess the effects of NCLB on the nation’s educational system. Fortunately, however, the assessment and accountability provisions of NCLB build directly on assessment and accountability policies begun a decade earlier. Spurred in part by the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994 (Public Law 103–382), many states increased the number of tests they required students to take and some states began imposing consequences on schools or school districts when students performed poorly on those tests. Examining the effects of these state-wide reforms of the 1990s can help us understand the likely effects of NCLB and generate ideas about how to improve NCLB when it comes up for reauthorization. Prior work has examined the impact of state accountability policies on student achievement (e.g., Carnoy and Loeb 2002; Hanushek and Raymond 2005). This paper focuses instead on how such policies influenced teachers and school administrators—especially those who work in low-income schools. Source: California Center for Population Research. On-Line Working Paper Series. Paper CCPR-017-07.
Download pdf publication | Link to eScholarship Repository
No comments:
Post a Comment