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

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.

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Devil in the Details: Making Sensible Modifications to No Child Left Behind

Education Finance and Policy ◽

10.1162/edfp.2006.1.2.266 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 266-277 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gary W. Ritter ◽

Christopher J. Lucas

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

South Carolina ◽

Public Schools ◽

No Child Left Behind ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Left Behind ◽

Full Compliance ◽

Respective State

Achieving full compliance with the accountability provisions of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal legislation poses major challenges for most of the nation's states. Structured, open-ended interviews were conducted with ranking representatives from a number of so-called high-readiness states: California, Florida, New York, South Carolina, and Texas. (Collectively, these states enroll over 16 million children, or approximately 35 percent of the nation's total school-attending population.) Most policy makers are reportedly confident their respective state school systems are able to meet NCLB standards. Yet while each state's situation is unique, limited resources coupled with dramatically increased expectations for public schools may spell trouble ahead. Lessons learned so far by several states as they engage the NCLB mandate are discussed and analyzed. Ultimately, patience and flexibility on the part of federal officials, it is argued, will be critical to the long-term success of the No Child Left Behind reform initiative.

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Learning from failure

Phi Delta Kappan ◽

10.1177/0031721718775678 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 99 (8) ◽

pp. 46-50 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jay P. Greene ◽

Michael Q. McShane

Keyword(s):

No Child Left Behind ◽

Education Reform ◽

Large Scale ◽

State Standards ◽

Race To The Top ◽

Reform Initiatives ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Left Behind ◽

Learning From Failure ◽

The Common

Over the last two decades, federal and state policy makers have launched a number of ambitious, large-scale education reform initiatives —No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, the Common Core State Standards, and others — only to see them sputter and fail. In 2017, the authors convened a number of leading scholars to explore why those initiatives failed and what can be learned from them. Participants agreed that to be more successful in the future, reformers will need to balance ambition and urgency with humility, political acumen, and the ability to recognize when it’s time to slow down or scale things back.

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Washington View: The opportunities and challenges of ESSA’s evidence-based requirements

Phi Delta Kappan ◽

10.1177/0031721719879159 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 101 (2) ◽

pp. 60-61

Author(s):

Maria Ferguson

Keyword(s):

No Child Left Behind ◽

School Improvement ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Left Behind ◽

Every Student Succeeds Act ◽

Evidence Based Programs

Instead of having to comply with rigid requirements of the No Child Left Behind era, states and districts now have greater latitude to decide for themselves which evidence-based programs are best suited to address their students’ needs. However, as Maria Ferguson explains, evidence-based school improvement is not as easy as it sounds. Not all states have the capacity or expertise to assist districts in determining which programs are most suitable. When the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is up for reauthorization in two years, policy makers will need to consider whether states and districts have what they need to follow its mandates.

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Teacher Workforce Developments: Recent Changes in Academic Competitiveness and Job Satisfaction of New Teachers

Education Finance and Policy ◽

10.1162/edfp_a_00215 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 310-332 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Benjamin Master ◽

Min Sun ◽

Susanna Loeb

Keyword(s):

Job Satisfaction ◽

Public Schools ◽

No Child Left Behind ◽

College Graduates ◽

Urban School Districts ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Alternative Pathways ◽

Left Behind ◽

Teacher Workforce ◽

Using Data

Policy makers and school leaders are perennially concerned with the capacity of the nation's public schools to recruit and retain highly skilled teachers. Over the past two decades, policy strategies including the federal No Child Left Behind Act and alternative pathways to teaching, as well as changes in the broader labor market, have altered the context in which academically skilled college graduates choose whether to enter teaching, and, if so, where to teach. Using data from 1993 to 2008, we find that schools nationwide are recruiting a greater share of academically skilled college graduates into teaching, and that increases in teachers’ academic skills are especially large in urban school districts that serve predominantly nonwhite students. On the other hand, the increase in the share of academically skilled teachers coincides with the lower likelihood of nonwhite teachers being employed. Once teaching, nonwhite teachers report substantially lower job satisfaction than other teachers. The issue of how to recruit and support an academically skilled and diverse teacher workforce remains pressing.

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

Education Finance and Policy ◽

10.1162/edfp.2006.1.2.217 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 217-246 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

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.

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Principal Turnover under No Child Left behind Accountability Pressure

Teachers College Record ◽

10.1177/016146811912100203 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 121 (2) ◽

pp. 1-44

Author(s):

Hajime Mitani

Keyword(s):

No Child Left Behind ◽

Title I ◽

Small Sample ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Principal Turnover ◽

Elementary And Secondary Education ◽

Left Behind ◽

Accountability Policy ◽

The Impact

Background/Context The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act was a performance-based accountability policy designed to motivate educators and administrators to change their behaviors and improve school and student outcomes. The simple logic behind this accountability policy was that they would change their behaviors to avoid sanctions. Many studies have investigated the impact of NCLB on students and teachers; however, little research has examined its impact on school principals even though they were a prime target of NCLB. Purpose/Objective This study fills the gap in the literature and investigates the impact of NCLB sanctions on principal turnover. It answers whether NCLB's informal and formal sanctions influenced principal turnover behaviors and whether the influence was moderated by principal and school characteristics. It also examines patterns in principal transfers and position changes. Research Design This study uses longitudinal administrative data and detailed school-level assessment data obtained from Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education from 2001–02 to 2009–10. It constructs a distance variable to the adequate yearly progress threshold and uses it as a key matching variable in propensity score matching to identify comparable schools not facing NCLB sanctions. Postmatching logistic regression models identify the impact of NCLB sanctions. Findings/Results Although I find no evidence that informal sanction affected principal turnover, the impact is significantly moderated by principals’ job experience, Title I school status, and the percent of non-White students. The first-year NCLB sanction does not appear to have affected principal turnover. However, this finding needs to be interpreted with caution because of the way the NCLB sanction system is structured and the small sample sizes. A descriptive analysis of the relationship between the second-year NCLB sanction and beyond, and principal turnover suggests that principals tend to leave their schools when they face NCLB sanctions. Finally, I find that principals transfer away from Title I schools, transfer to schools with a smaller number of high-needs students, and take positions at district central offices, regardless of whether they face NCLB sanctions. Collectively, NCLB sanctions appear to have impacted principal turnover. Conclusions/Recommendations The results from this study have policy implications. They suggest that policy makers should provide professional support and adequate resources for principals, especially inexperienced principals, who work at low-performing schools and face sanctions. Moreover, policy makers should develop and embed a policy in new accountability systems that addresses inequity in the distribution of principal quality.

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