scholarly journals The Effects of School Reform under NCLB Waivers: Evidence from Focus Schools in Kentucky

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sade Bonilla ◽  
Thomas S. Dee
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Reading Proficiency ◽  
Design Feature ◽  
The State ◽  
School Reforms ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Whole School ◽  
Math Proficiency ◽  
Focus Schools

Under waivers to the No Child Left Behind Act, the federal government required states to identify schools where targeted subgroups of students have the lowest achievement and to implement reforms in these “Focus Schools.” In this study, we examine the Focus School reforms in the state of Kentucky. The reforms in this state are uniquely interesting for several reasons. One is that the state developed unusually explicit guidance for Focus Schools centered on a comprehensive school-planning process. Second, the state identified Focus Schools using a “super subgroup” measure that combined traditionally low-performing subgroups into an umbrella group. This design feature may have catalyzed broader whole-school reforms and attenuated the incentives to target reform efforts narrowly. Using regression discontinuity designs, we find that these reforms led to substantial improvements in school performance, raising math proficiency rates by 17 percent and reading proficiency rates by 9 percent.

The happy (and not so happy) accidents of Bush-Obama school reform

2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 31-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick M. Hess ◽  
Michael Q. McShane
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Common Core ◽  
School Reforms ◽  
Achievement Testing ◽  
Data Systems ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Policy Ideas ◽  
The Common ◽  
Unexpected Outcomes

Drawing upon their new edited volume of essays looking back on the school reforms of the Bush and Obama years, the authors explain just how few of those reforms went according to plan. Some of the unexpected outcomes were positive, they note, pointing to the improvement of school data systems and the bipartisan compromise that put an end to No Child Left Behind. Some of them were negative, such as a public backlash against achievement testing in general and the implementation of the Common Core in particular. And all of them should lead reformers to question their own certainty about how their policy ideas will play out.

Administrative Perspectives on the No Child Left behind Act (NCLBA) for Students with Disabilities in Rural Settings

2005 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luann L. Purcell ◽  
Bill East ◽  
Harvey A. Rude
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
The State ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Education Leaders ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Impact

The impact of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) has provided a significant challenge and opportunity for administrators of special education services at the state and local levels. Leaders representing prominent professional organizations at both the state (National Association of State Directors of Special Education, Inc.) and local (Council of Administrators of Special Education, Inc.) education levels have identified advantages and barriers to successful implementation of the legal mandates. The most significant challenges for special education leaders and managers include: the requirements for adequate yearly progress for all learners, the provision of highly qualified special education service providers, and an adequate amount of attention devoted to all subgroups of learners. The unique difficulties for rural schools providing an appropriate education to all learners, including those with disabilities, are compounded by the effects of supplemental services, choice options, and the identification of adequate resources. The implications for the preparation of effective special education leaders and managers are identified within these parameters.

Public borders, private crossings: Anthropological approaches to neoliberalism in US educational policy and spaces

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Convertino ◽  
Amy Brown ◽  
Marguerite Anne Fillion Wilson
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Educational Policies ◽  
Market Values ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Nation At Risk ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Private Values ◽  
Public Versus Private

Educational policies across the globe reflect the ascendancy of neoliberalism. According to neoliberalism, the market represents a superior mechanism to govern ( Peters, 2012 ), and thus, the role of the state is to enable the agency of the market ( Rose, 1999 ). In the United States, the federal report A Nation at Risk (1983) formalized the direct influence of a neoliberal rationality on the formation of educational policies. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (2001) and The Race to the Top (2010) represent successive assertions of market values on educational reform. At the same time, there is a fundamental contradiction within neoliberal logic: while the state is to refrain from interfering in the market, it must simultaneously intervene to govern schools ( Hursh, 2005 ). Based on these trends, the articles in this special issue highlight critical tensions between public versus private values, practices, and discourses that emerge from the proliferation of a neoliberal logic into the educational sphere. In different ways, each of these articles map out a unique facet of neoliberalism in education to complicate the often totalizing critiques of market-based logics in order to demonstrate the complex ways that people rearticulate and resist education policy in an era of neoliberal ascendancy.

scholarly journals No Child Left Behind: A postmortem for Illinois

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Wm. Gregory Harman ◽  
Camille Boden ◽  
Jeremy Karpenski ◽  
Nicole Muchowicz
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Graduation Rates ◽  
The State ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Reading And Math ◽  
System Data ◽  
Closing The Gap ◽  
Future Policy

In this study, the outcomes of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as implemented in Illinois, are evaluated in terms of high school standards testing results between 2003-2013. NCLB was a policy dedicated to closing the gap in schooling outcomes nationally in the space of a decade. There have been few systematic examinations of its macro-level results for those exiting high school, especially considering the attention, time, effort, and money dedicated to its implementation. It has been subsumed into newer reform policies that move forward from the same assumptions and structures without a look back. This is a macro study of the outcomes in one state, Illinois, using its assessment system. Data include Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE) results in reading and math as well as graduation rates from high schools. The data is evaluated across the state as a whole and within categories of urban, suburban, town, and rural. Outcomes in reading, math, and graduation rates remain unchanged across the decade at the state and all community-type categories. Potential problems with implementation and design of NCLB are proposed with the intention of informing current and future policy, especially in regard to continuing a standards/accountability regime under the Common Core.

How Does an Accountability Program that Targets Achievement Gaps Affect Student Performance?

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-74
Author(s):  
Steven W. Hemelt ◽  
Brian A. Jacob
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Achievement Gaps ◽  
School Reforms ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Short Run ◽  
Core Requirements ◽  
Differentiated Accountability ◽  
Every Student Succeeds Act

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education granted states the opportunity to apply for waivers from the core requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. In exchange, many states implemented systems of differentiated accountability that included a focus on schools with the largest achievement gaps between subgroups of students. We use administrative data from Michigan in a series of regression-discontinuity analyses to study the effects of these school reforms on schools and students. We find some evidence that targeting schools for such reforms led to small, short-run reductions in the within-school math achievement gap. However, these reductions were driven by stagnant performance of lower-achieving students alongside declines in the performance of their higher-achieving peers. These findings serve as a cautionary tale for the capacity of the accountability provisions embedded in the recent reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, the Every Student Succeeds Act, to meaningfully improve student and school outcomes.

Washington’s High-Ability Programs During the No Child Left Behind Era

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-302
Author(s):  
Jaret Hodges ◽  
Kristen Lamb
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Adequate Yearly Progress ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
The State ◽  
Gifted Programs ◽  
Gifted Program ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
Program Options

This study used historical data to find associations between changes in policies, funding, and accountability stemming from No Child Left Behind and the provision of services offered to students identified as gifted in the state of Washington. Descriptive statistics and a regression model are used to examine the change in gifted programs by school districts from 2006 to 2007 up until the point where the state received a waiver (2012–2013). Initial results suggest that, during this time frame, the number of districts reporting having gifted programs declined from 77% to 62% of school districts. Furthermore, the regression results provide evidence that school districts that did not make adequate yearly progress were more likely to no longer report having a gifted program as time progressed (β = −0.29, SE = .11). Those districts that retained gifted programs expanded program options.

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