scholarly journals Does No Child Left Behind Place a Fiscal Burden on States? Evidence from Texas

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Imazeki ◽  
Andrew Reschovsky
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Limited English Proficiency ◽  
Performance Standards ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Federal Mandate ◽  
Additional Costs ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
K 12 ◽  
New Student

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires states to establish goals for all students and for groups of students characterized by race, ethnicity, poverty, disability, and limited English proficiency and requires schools to make annual progress in meeting these goals. In a number of states, officials have argued that increased federal education funding is not sufficient to cover the costs imposed by the new legislation. In this article, we use data from Texas to estimate the additional costs of meeting the new student performance standards. We find that these costs substantially exceed the additional federal funding. The article concludes with a discussion of whether NCLB should be considered an underfunded federal mandate and a brief discussion of the appropriate federal role in the financing of K–12 education.

scholarly journals Performance Standards': Utility for Different Uses of Assessments

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Linn
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Performance Standards ◽  
Educational Measurement ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Great Uncertainty ◽  
Assessment Results

Performance standards are arguably one of the most controversial topics in educational measurement. There are uses of assessments such as licensure and certification where performance standards are essential. There are many other uses, however, where performance standards have been mandated or become the preferred method of reporting assessment results where the standards are not essential to the use. Distinctions between essential and nonessential uses of performance standards are discussed. It is argued that the insistence on reporting in terms of performance standards in situations where they are not essential has been more harmful than helpful. Variability in the definitions of proficient academic achievement by states for purposes of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is discussed and it is argued that the variability is so great that characterizing achievement is meaningless. Illustrations of the great uncertainty in standards are provided.

Factors Associated With Accuracy in Prekindergarten Teacher Ratings of Students’ Mathematics Skills

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 410-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily C. Furnari ◽  
Jessica Whittaker ◽  
Mable Kinzie ◽  
Jamie DeCoster
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Mathematical Knowledge ◽  
Teacher Ratings ◽  
Teacher Characteristics ◽  
Mathematical Skills ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Prekindergarten Teachers ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Mathematics Skills ◽  
Race Ethnicity

The No Child Left Behind Act requires that 95% of students in all public elementary and secondary schools are assessed in mathematics. Unfortunately, direct assessments of young students can be timely, costly, and challenging to administer. Therefore, policy makers have looked to indirect forms of assessment, such as teachers’ ratings of student skills, as a substitute. However, prekindergarten teachers’ ratings of students’ mathematical knowledge and skills are only correlated with direct assessments at the .50 level. Little is known about factors that influence accuracy in teacher ratings. In this study, we examine the influence of student and teacher characteristics on prekindergarten teachers’ ratings of students’ mathematical skills, controlling for direct assessment of these skills. Results indicate that students’ race/ethnicity and social competency, as well as teachers’ self-efficacy, are significantly related to prekindergarten teachers’ ratings of students’ mathematical skills.

Implications for Scaling up Advanced Course Offerings and Takings: Evidence from Florida

2016 ◽  
Vol 118 (13) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrice Iatarola
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
School Experiences ◽  
Race To The Top ◽  
High School Experiences ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Course Offerings ◽  
Advanced Courses

This article summarizes a set of research studies that focus on high school course offerings, takings, and effects. Improving high school experiences and having students graduate from high school ready for college are national priorities under President Obama's Race to the Top initiative. Doing so by expanding access to advanced courses dates back a decade to President George W. Bush and the National Governors Association's efforts in the No Child Left Behind era. Courses are still seen as the gateway to higher student performance and access to college. From research done in collaboration with Dylan Conger and Mark Long, we found that taking more rigorous math courses increases students’ likelihood of being ready for college math, and that gaps in math course taking explain about one third of the gap between White and Black students and White and Hispanic students’ readiness for college. Advanced courses do matter—even taking just one advanced course improves students’ test scores, likelihood of graduating from high school, and likelihood of attending a four-year university. Schools, however, could do more to overcome the gap. We found that the best predictor of schools’ offering advanced courses was their having a critical mass of students with very high prior achievement. Resources, however, were not a factor.

Is No Child Left Behind an Un (or Under) funded Federal Mandate? Evidence from Texas

2004 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Imazeki ◽  
Andrew Reschovsky
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Federal Mandate

scholarly journals Unscheduled School Closings and Student Performance

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dave E. Marcotte ◽  
Steven W. Hemelt
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Adequate Yearly Progress ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
Late Winter ◽  
School Closings ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Instruction Time ◽  
Reading And Math ◽  
Using Data

Do students perform better on statewide assessments in years in which they have more school days to prepare? We explore this question using data on math and reading assessments taken by students in the third, fifth, and eighth grades since 1994 in Maryland. Our identification strategy is rooted in the fact that tests are administered on the same day(s) statewide in late winter or early spring, so any unscheduled closings due to snow reduce instruction time and are not made up until after the exams are over. We estimate that in academic years with an average number of unscheduled closures (five), the number of third graders performing satisfactorily on state reading and math assessments within a school is nearly 3 percent lower than in years with no school closings. The impacts of closure are smaller for students in fifth and eighth grades. Combining our estimates with actual patterns of unscheduled closings in the last three years, we find that more than half of schools failing to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) in third-grade math or reading, required under No Child Left Behind, would have met AYP if schools had been open on all scheduled days.

scholarly journals It’s time to redefine the federal role in K-12 education

2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Jennings
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Every Student Succeeds Act

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed in 2015, succeeded in weakening the least popular parts of the No Child Left Behind act. But, argues Jack Jennings, it’s a purely reactive piece of legislation, offering no positive vision for the federal government’s role in addressing K-12 education’s most urgent problems. ESSA is still young, he notes, but Republicans and Democrats should already be hard at work crafting its replacement.

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