scholarly journals Relations between accountability and improvement strategies in New York City’s Children First Networks

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 122
Author(s):  
Kelly McMahon
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
School Districts ◽  
School Quality ◽  
Report Cards ◽  
Support Providers ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Improvement Strategies ◽  
School Report Cards ◽  
Children First

Federal school accountability policies like No Child Left Behind were based on a logic that measuring school performance and making the results public through tools like school report cards would incentivize educators to create strategies for improving school quality. Yet, most schools needed more than incentives to be able to design improvement strategies that would lead to all students becoming proficient in standard subjects like math and ELA. As a result, states and school districts implemented an infrastructure of supports. To date, there is little research that considers how support providers use accountability tools to diagnose problems and design targeted improvement strategies. Without better knowledge of how schools and providers commit to particular improvement strategies, it is difficult to determine whether we need better school report cards or strategies, or both to improve school quality. This study aims to address this gap by examining how four Children First Networks in New York City used accountability metrics to develop targeted improvement strategies, which led to distinctly different improvement strategies. The article closes with implications for policy.

Funding Structures and State Capacity for School Improvement under the Every Student Succeeds Act: Case Studies of Five States

2021 ◽  
pp. e20210005
Author(s):  
Hailey Karcher ◽  
David S. Knight
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
School Districts ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Title I ◽  
Local Autonomy ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Improvement Strategies ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Every Student Succeeds Act

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal government allocates 7% of Title I funds, about $1 billion per year, for school improvement. States have substantial autonomy in allocating these funds, including which schools are identified for federal school improvement, what improvement strategies are used, and whether external intermediaries are involved. A growing area of research explores the private, often for-profit school improvement industry, but few studies track the finance and policy structures that funnel public funds to external K–12 intermediaries. In this study, we draw on document analysis and interview data to explore school improvement practices and finance policies in five case study states. We find that states use varied methods for identifying schools for improvement, and also vary in the extent to which they provide local autonomy to school districts. Some states, such as Texas and Tennessee, incentivize schools to adopt particular strategies or encourage partnering with an external intermediary. Texas provides a list of vetted external intermediaries they expect districts to work with (and support financially). Other states, such as California and New York, provide more state-led school improvement strategies through regional offices and give districts greater local autonomy. Findings point to possible benefits of local autonomy, while highlighting potential challenges associated with unregulated market-based reforms in education.

scholarly journals Teacher Retention in a Teacher Resiliency-Building Rural School

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
William W. Malloy ◽  
Tawannah Allen
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Teacher Retention ◽  
Rural School ◽  
Highly Qualified Teachers ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Qualified Teachers ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Teacher Resiliency

This article focuses on the challenge of teacher retention in rural schools in relation to the No Child Left Behind mandate, that school districts must attract and retain highly qualified teachers. This case study examines the extent to which a rural school enhanced teacher retention by overcoming the barriers that might otherwise have presented a challenge to teacher retention. Findings from this study suggest that the nurturing the nurturers concept, inherent in teacher resiliency-building schools, enhances teacher retention strategies.  

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

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-277 ◽  
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.

School-to-School Variation in Disciplined Inquiry

2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 1553-1583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Kelly ◽  
Richard Majerus
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
School Quality ◽  
Large Body ◽  
School Level ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
The Public ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
School Differences

In recent years No Child Left Behind has provided new labels to supposedly high- and low-performing schools and has identified large numbers of schools as low performing. Are school-to-school differences in the quality of instruction offered as great as the public is led to believe? Using the disciplined inquiry typology of Newman, Marks, and Gamoran, we examine whether variation in observable indicators of school quality correspond to real differences in instruction between schools. Consistent with the large body of research on school effects we find very modest school-level variation in the prevalence of disciplined inquiry.

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