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.

Has NCLB Encouraged Educational Triage? Accountability and the Distribution of Achievement Gains

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Ballou ◽  
Matthew G. Springer
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Mathematics Achievement ◽  
Adequate Yearly Progress ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Achievement Gains ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Closing The Gap ◽  
Reasonable Prospect ◽  
Identification Strategy

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has been criticized for encouraging schools to neglect students whose performance exceeds the proficiency threshold or lies so far below it that there is no reasonable prospect of closing the gap during the current year. We examine this hypothesis using longitudinal data from 2002–03 through 2005–06. Our identification strategy relies on the fact that as NCLB was phased in, states had some latitude in designating which grades were to count for purposes of a school making adequate yearly progress. We compare the mathematics achievement distribution in a grade before and after it became a high-stakes grade. We find in general no evidence that gains were concentrated on students near the proficiency standard at the expense of students scoring much lower, though there are inconsistent signs of a trade-off with students at the upper end of the distribution.

scholarly journals High School Graduation Rates:Alternative Methods and Implications

2004 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Miao ◽  
Walt Haney
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Graduation Rates ◽  
Graduation Rate ◽  
High School Graduation ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
High School Graduation Rates ◽  
Public School Systems ◽  
School Graduation ◽  
Rate Method

The No Child Left Behind Act has brought great attention to the high school graduation rate as one of the mandatory accountability measures for public school systems. However, there is no consensus on how to calculate the high school graduation rate given the lack of longitudinal databases that track individual students. This study reviews literature on and practices in reporting high school graduation rates, compares graduation rate estimates yielded from alternative methods, and estimates discrepancies between alternative results at national, state, and state ethnic group levels. Despite the graduation rate method used, results indicate that high school graduation rates in the U.S. have been declining in recent years and that graduation rates for black and Hispanic students lag substantially behind those of white students. As to graduation rate method preferred, this study found no evidence that the conceptually more complex methods yield more accurate or valid graduation rate estimates than the simpler methods.

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.

High School Students' Perspectives on the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act's Definition of a Highly Qualified Teacher

2006 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 698-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
VERONICA GARCIA ◽  
WILHEMINA AGBEMAKPLIDO ◽  
HANAN ABDELA ◽  
OSCAR LOPEZ JR. ◽  
RASHIDA REGISTE
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
School Experiences ◽  
Highly Qualified Teacher ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
School Students ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Qualified Teacher ◽  
Definition Of

In this article, four urban high school students and their student leadership and social justice class advisor address the question, "What are high school students' perspectives on the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act's (NCLB) definition of a highly qualified teacher?" As the advisor to the course, Garcia challenged her students to examine their high school experiences with teachers. The students offer personal stories that describe what they consider the critical qualities of teachers — qualities not based solely on the credentials and education status defined by NCLB. The authors suggest that highly qualified teachers should cultivate safe, respectful, culturally sensitive, and responsive learning communities, establish relationships with students' families and communities, express their high expectations for their students through instructional planning and implementation, and know how students learn. This article urges educators and policymakers to consider the students' voices and school experiences when making decisions about their educational needs, including the critical issue of teacher quality.

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.

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.

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.

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