Does NCLB Improve the Achievement of Students With Disabilities? A Regression Discontinuity Design

Abstract

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) holds public schools accountable for the academic achievement of student subgroups that are larger than the state minimum-subgroup-size threshold. In 2004, California added students with disabilities to the NCLB subgroup categories. Using a regression discontinuity design, this study compared the academic achievement of students-with-disabilities subgroups that were just above the minimum-subgroup-size threshold to those just below the threshold. The results showed no effects of holding schools and teachers accountable for the achievement of students with disabilities after controlling for student performance and school characteristics of the previous academic year. Policy implications are discussed.     

Raising standards in American schools: the case of No Child Left Behind

In January 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law what is arguably the most important piece of US educational legislation for the past 35 years. For the first time, Public Law 107–110 links high stakes testing with strict accountability measures designed to ensure that, at least in schools that receive government funding, no child is left behind. The appropriately named No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) links government funding to strict improvement policies for America's public schools. Much of what is undertaken in NCLB is praiseworthy, the Act is essentially equitable for it ensures that schools pay due regard to the progress of those sections of the school population who have traditionally done less well in school, in particular, students from economically disadvantaged homes, as well as those from ethnic minority backgrounds and those who have limited proficiency to speak English. However, this seemingly salutatory aspect of the Act is also the one that has raised the most objections. This paper describes the key features of this important piece of legislation before outlining why it is that a seemingly equitable Act has produced so much consternation in US education circles. Through an exploration of school level data for the state of New Jersey, the paper considers the extent to which these concerns have been justified during the early days of No Child Left Behind.     

Schools for the deaf and the No Child Left Behind Act

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) emphasizes educational accountability for all students. Twenty-eight states have policies to aggregate student participation and proficiency data for schools for the deaf in NCLB reports. The remaining states account for these students in other ways: referring student data to "sending" schools and aggregating data to the district or state level are most prominent. In reports of student assessment results for academic year 2002-2003, three schools for the deaf made "Adequate Yearly Progress" under NCLB: These schools demonstrated at least a 95% participation rate in assessments, and at least 95% of their students met or surpassed state proficiency benchmarks in reading and mathematics. Proficiency levels for other schools varied by report, but were often comparable to those of students with disabilities. Challenges and strategies for capturing the impact of NCLB accountability policies on deaf students are discussed.     

Desegregation Decrees versus the NCLB Choice Provision

ABSTRACT

Despite the creeping resegregation of public schools, recent court decisions have been involved in the lifting of court-ordered desegregation decrees, which could arguably cause further segregation. When dismissing desegregation decrees, lower courts have relied on three U.S. Supreme Court decisions during the 1990s that permitted a lower standard for lifting desegregation decrees. Those school districts that remain under court-ordered desegregation decrees may find themselves in conflict with the No Child Left Behind Act's (NCLB) choice provision. Specifically, NCLB permits parents to transfer their children to another school if their present school is deemed in need of improvement. Such NCLB regulations may permit school districts to bypass the desegregation decree. In so doing, there is a conflict between a federal regulation and federal court order.

Employing legal research techniques (e.g., case and statutory analysis), this paper explores the Supreme Court's jurisprudence for declaring a school district unitary, analyzes the conflict between court-ordered desegregation decrees and NCLB's choice provision, and discusses the potential litigation that could result from the conflict between NCLB and desegregation decrees. doi:10.1300/J467v01n03_08     

A change management,systems thinking,or organizational development approach to the No Child Left Behind act

Problems with implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be assessed in light of change management theory. Viewing stakeholders collectively as a corporate entity supports employing change management strategies to make the NCLB work. Examining ways that organizational controls and change management can work together points to possible reasons for the problems NCLB has encountered. Finally, strategies are suggested that may facilitate education reform and also have broad application for human performance technology practice.     

Dubious Sovereignty: Federal Conditions of Aid and the No Child Left Behind Act

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) represents the greatest extension to date of Federal authority over public school governance. In NCLB, Congress used its conditional spending power to push states and localities into enacting particular kinds of testing and accountability policies. This article places NCLB in the context of Congress's generally increasing willingness to exert itself via conditions attached to federal financial aid. It also analyzes the implications of NCLB for federalism and intergovernmental relationships in education governance.     

Education of deaf and hard of hearing students and accountability reform: issues for the future

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) has had a monumental impact over the past decade on how educational reform is viewed in the United States. As a result of how the law is structured, schools for students who are deaf or hard of hearing have been the focus of attention for educational reform under NCLB. While there have been some shifts in policy, reauthorization of NCLB will need to respond to some of the larger calls for changes to the law. The author discusses some key issues related to assessment and accountability that are central to how the reauthorization of NCLB affects the education of deaf and hard of hearing students.     

Placism in NCLB—How Rural Children are Left Behind

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has been proclaimed by some as a reform that will improve education for students from all backgrounds, in all locations. The main components of NCLB, however, are biased against students in small and rural schools. This bias, called “placism,” discriminates against people based on where they live. This rural incompatibility is evident in NCLB's accountability provisions, sanctions, and highly qualified teacher provisions. Problems in these areas are the result of ignoring, or distorting, the realities of rural schooling. The accountability provisions are constructed so that small schools will frequently be incorrectly labeled as failing. The sanctions, inappropriate for rural areas, fail to provide solutions to existing rural challenges. The “highly qualified” teacher provisions make it more difficult, not easier, for rural districts to attract and retain competent teachers. Unless these injustices are corrected, NCLB will serve to decrease educational quality for rural students.     

No Child Left Behind and the Federal Role in Education: Evolution or Revolution?

As the most significant revision of federal education policy in decades, No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) raises the question of whether it represents a sharp departure from past policy or simply the next phase in the evolution of that policy. This article examines the implementation history of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act from the original legislation enacted in 1965 to the most recent embodiment in NCLB. It concludes that, although NCLB has expanded federal regulation, this newest version reflects an evolution of the federal role rather than a radical redefinition, with NCLB's design only possible because of profound changes in the state role over the past 20 years.     

The Anti-Black Order of No Child Left Behind: Using Lacanian psychoanalysis and critical race theory to examine NCLB

During a period in which institutions have been refashioned to meet the demands of a complex social and political economy, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has helped to alter the public educational system. As scholars and researchers examine the material effects of NCLB, efforts to improve the educational system and its effects must also explore the relationship between policy and racial ideologies including discursive fantasies. This article examines the relationship between NCLB and racial fantasies of Black youth as problematic others in order to help education reform scholarship and advocacy examine the violence of NCLB.     

No Poor Child Left Unrecruited: How NCLB Codifies and Perpetuates Urban School Militarism

A critical theoretical framework is used to analyze the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal legislation and its role in codifying and perpetuating educational practices and policies that contribute to growing campus militarism in urban schools serving low-income African American and Latino students. The author argues that NCLB § 9528 is part of a broader strategy by the Pentagon to recruit low-income urban youth for the military. The article examines how NCLB's focus on standardized tests and punitive sanctions reinforces urban schools' already narrow curriculum, leading to the diminished capacity of students to question militarism and challenge social oppression.     

Validity of Inferences from Test-based Educational Accountability Systems

Many states have adopted test-based accountability systems before the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 became law. NCLB has added a new dimension to test-based educational accountability systems. Features of state and NCLB accountability are discussed with an emphasis on questions of the validity of inferences that are made about school quality. It is concluded that none of the current approaches toe test-based accountability support causal inferences about school quality. It is also shown that tracking progress toward the important goal of closing gaps in achievement requires more than just monitoring changes in the percentages of students who are proficient.     

Techies,the Tea Party,and the Race to the Top: The Rise of the New Upper-Middle Class and Tensions in the Rightist Politics of Federal Education Reform

Abstract

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and their associated high-stakes testing are key parts of the federal Race to the Top (RTTT) initiative. There has been considerable resistance to both CCSS and related testing, particularly from conservative actors. This resistance suggests that CCSS has caused substantial tension within the conservative alliance that originally coalesced around No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This article examines the fracturing of the NCLB alliance in response to RTTT and CCSS.     

Can Irrational Become Unconstitutional? NCLB's 100% Presuppositions

This article identifies two presuppositions underlying No Child Left Behind's (NCLB) system of adequate yearly progress. The first is that each state must bring 100% of its students up to proficiency on state tests by the 2013–14 school year. The second is that each student's test score must effectively be treated by the state as if his or her school were 100% responsible for that score. The article demonstrates that these two 100% presuppositions are unsupportable and then explores the NCLB rules in the context of the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, which prohibits the government from arbitrary exercises of power.     

The Impact of Priority School Designation Under ESEA Flexibility in New York State

Abstract

Prior to the 2012–13 school year, New York and many other states underwent changes to their accountability systems as a result of applying for and being granted waivers from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. A key component of these new accountability systems, under what is known as ESEA Flexibility or NCLB Waivers, was the designation of the lowest performing 5% of Title I schools as priority schools with the goal of improved performance within three years of receiving their designation. The priority school policy included elements of both accountability and school turnaround to try to improve student outcomes in low performing schools. This study examines the extent to which elementary and middle priority schools in New York State improved in the three years since being designated priority schools. By the end of the 2014–15 school year—the third year of three to show improvement—I find elementary and middle priority schools did not show improvement and, in fact, performed worse than schools just above the cutoff for determining priority school eligibility.     

美国追求卓越的教育改革会终止吗?——《不让一个孩子落伍》法重新授权面临的争议

备受关注的美国《不让一个孩子落伍》法(NCLB)目前正处于国会的重新授权之中,围绕着是否重新授权以及如何修改等问题,美国社会产生了重大分歧。大致形成了三大阵营:要求将追求卓越的教育改革进行到底的支持派、主张对现有教育政策进行重大调整的修正派以及呼吁将联邦教育政策打回原形的反对派。美国NCLB重新授权经历的这一充满争议的过程将有助于更为健全和更具有包容力的基础教育改革新政策的问世。     

Aging Education: A National Imperative

ABSTRACT

Americans are living longer than ever before. However, many are not prepared for the long life ahead of them. Although lifespan-aging education has been endorsed since the first White House Conference on Aging in 1961, little is happening with aging education in our homes, schools and communities. Americans often reach old age with little or no formal education on aging or anticipatory guidance about aging. This article looks at what is happening in aging education, addresses why we need to teach about aging, presents a conceptual framework for aging education, discusses aging education resources, and gives some easily implemented aging education activities.     

Switching Schools? A Closer Look at Parents' Initial Interest in and Knowledge About the Choice Provisions of No Child Left Behind

Whether public and private school choice initiatives usher in widespread enrollment changes or whether they cater to a small niche of students critically depends on the decisions that parents make on behalf of their children. Thus far, participation rates in most programs have proved disappointing. This article focuses on parents' knowledge of and interest in the choice provisions under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), for which a miniscule percentage of qualifying students nationwide have enlisted. Drawing from a survey of Massachusetts public school parents completed in the summer of 2003, 18 months after NCLB's enactment, two basic findings emerge. First, although parents claimed to be familiar with NCLB, the vast majority of those who in fact qualified for the act's choice provisions did not know that their child's school was on the state's list of underperforming schools. Second, parents with children in underperforming schools were especially interested in pursuing alternative schooling options. This interest, however, did not derive from pointed dissatisfaction with their current schools, and it was regularly directed toward options that NCLB does not afford-specifically, private schools. An essential point underscores these findings: If advocates of NCLB are to boost participation rates, and if scholars are to accurately predict the likely scope of other kinds of school choice programs, parents require considerably greater attention than they have received up until now.     

应试导向的NCLB对美国教师教育的影响

NCLB法案培育的"成绩文化"变革着美国K-12课堂教学和教师教育.美国的教师教育项目正承受着NCLB所带来的应试教育之痛:对"高质量教师"的界定使考试成为惟一入职门槛,教师的同质化趋势与学生多元化趋势之间的矛盾日益加剧,承受"成绩问责"考验的中小学制约了教师教育项目学生的实习过程,大学的教师教育项目必须在迎合NCLB成绩至上和秉持教育本质属性之间寻求平衡.     

从开端计划到NCLB:弱势儿童教育制度的发展

当代美国对弱势儿童提供的教育补偿和帮助,以及努力追求教育公平,主要通过《开端计划》和《不让一个孩子掉队法》（NCLB）等法案来实现。在追求教育公平的过程中,它们主要体现出以下特点：保障教育平等兼顾质量卓越;教育公平贯穿各阶段,尤其是人生的早期阶段;有力的政府干预是有关法令得以实施的重要保障。