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.

scholarly journals Relooking at the Common Core Standards Through the Lens of Equity – Closing the Achievement Gap

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
N. K. Rathee
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Achievement Gap ◽  
Common Core ◽  
State Standards ◽  
Common Core Standards ◽  
National Assessment ◽  
Closing The Achievement Gap ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
12Th Grade ◽  
The Common

On the failure of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to close the “achievement gap” between whites and minorities, the Common Core State Standards were heralded as the best way of raising academic standards for all children around the country and closing the achievement gap. Numerous reports have emerged questioning the efficacy of the Common Core Standards to deliver what was promised. Public disillusion is apparent. This paper is an attempt to revisit the Common Core Standards through the lens of data generated by its implementation. Quantitative data available from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for 4th, 8th and 12th grade students and their achievements scores for mathematics and reading for the years 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015 were taken into consideration. Results have revealed no increase, much less significant, in the average achievement scores and no indication that the achievement gap was being narrowed. Recommendations have been made for having a relook at the content and the implementation of the standards.

scholarly journals Why Reform Sometimes Succeeds: Understanding the Conditions That Produce Reforms That Last

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 644-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K. Cohen ◽  
Jal D. Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Common Core ◽  
Educational Infrastructure ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
The Common

Counter to narratives of persistently failed school reform, we argue that reforms sometimes succeed and seek to understand why. Drawing on examples from the founding of public schools to the present, we find that successful system-wide reforms addressed problems that teachers thought they had by being consistent with prevailing norms and values, mobilizing a significant public constituency, and building the needed educational infrastructure. We distinguish between system-wide and niche reforms, suggesting that some—particularly those seeking ambitious instruction—failed system-wide but succeeded by creating protected educational niches. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for the Common Core.

Growth Models in the Age of School Reform and Accountability

2015 ◽  
pp. 490-510
Author(s):  
Sean W. Mulvenon ◽  
Sandra G. Bowman ◽  
Jill A. Berta
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Growth Models ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Accountability Systems ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Evaluation Models

The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary School Act (ESEA) in 2002, also called “No Child Left Behind,” mandated use of accountability systems to evaluate school and district performance. The accountability systems were initially required to use cross-sectional student level assessment results in the evaluation models when assigning performance labels to school systems. Growth models were approved for use in the evaluation models in 2006, but their implementation required development of policy, identification of appropriate methods, and guidelines for assigning labels of performance to schools. The purpose of this chapter is to review the development of educational policy, implementation, and challenges in the use of growth models in accountability systems.

Authority and Control: The Tension at the Heart of Standards-Based Accountability

2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-445
Author(s):  
JACK SCHNEIDER ◽  
ANDREW SAULTZ
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
State Standards ◽  
Loose Coupling ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Accountability Movement ◽  
The Common ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Every Student Succeeds Act ◽  
And Control

In this essay, Jack Schneider and Andrew Saultz offer a new perspective on state and federal power through their analysis of authority and control. Due to limitations inherent to centralized governance, state and federal offices of education exercised little control over schools across much of the twentieth century, even as they acquired considerable authority. By the 1980s, however, such loose coupling had become politically untenable and led to the standards and accountability movement. Yet, greater exertion of control only produced a new legitimacy challenge: the charge of ineffectiveness. State and federal offices, then, are trapped in an impossible bind, in which they are unable to relinquish control without abdicating authority. Schneider and Saultz examine how state and federal offices have managed this dilemma through ceremonial reform, looking at two high-profile examples: the transition from No Child Left Behind to the Every Student Succeeds Act, and states’ reaction to public criticism of the Common Core State Standards.

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.

Threat Rigidity, School Reform, and How Teachers View Their Work Inside Current Education Policy Contexts

2009 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brad Olsen ◽  
Dena Sexton
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
School Personnel ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Instructional Assessment ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Policy Context ◽  
Threat Rigidity ◽  
Flow Of Information

This article reports on a study of teachers at one reforming high school. Though it is not their task to debate No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the authors locate their investigation inside the current policy context to which NCLB is attached. Specifically, they present their analysis through the organizational behavior lens of threat rigidity to discuss the ways that current federal and state policy contexts influence schools and how those affected schools in turn adopt corresponding reforms that influence teachers’ work. The analysis demonstrates that on both levels, such influence occurs in similar ways: by centralizing and restricting the flow of information, by constricting control, by emphasizing routinized and simplified instructional/assessment practices, and by applying strong pressure for school personnel to conform.

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