No Child Left Behind

U.S. Census Bureau Fact Finder
Web site offers tons of hard data and downloadable databases on education, families and related issues.
6/14/2007

Implementing the No Child Left Behind Teacher Requirements This report examines how states and school districts have implemented the No Child Left Behind Act's teacher quality requirements and their effect. It finds that requirements have had minimal or no impact on student achievement and have not had a major impact on teacher effectiveness. Center on Education Policy - Jennifer McMurrer, 8/22/2007

Creating a Successful Performance Compensation System for Educators This report, funded by the Joyce Foundation, offers guidelines on creating a successful system for rewarding educators based on their performance. Reporters will probably find the stories of school systems where this practice is being used helpful. National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, 7/24/2007

Commission on No Child Left Behind
The report is the result of a commission's work to produce concrete recommendations on how to improve the No Child Left Behind Act and specifically its impact on closing the achievement gap. Housed at the Aspen Institute, the bipartisan commission is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Spencer Foundation.
6/14/2007

National Center for Education Statistics The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), located within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences, is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education. 6/14/2007

AFT's recommendations for improving NCLB pdf
The American Federation of Teachers believes flaws in the No Child Left Behind law are undercutting its original promise. Here, the organization details its ideas for changes in the areas of assessment and accountability, school improvement interventions, staffing schools, funding and systemwide accountability.
American Federation of Teachers, 6/14/2007

NCES Digest of Education Statistics

The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics created this compilation of statistical information produced by government and private sources on American education from prekindergarten through graduate school.

The Condition of Education 2007
High school students in the United States are taking more courses in mathematics and science, as well as social studies, the arts, and foreign languages, according to an analysis of high school student coursework that is highlighted in this government report. Statistics on student achievement, school environment and a wide range of other topics related to early childhood education through postsecondary education are also included.
by National Center for Education Statistics, 5/1/2007

NCLB, Testing and Growth Models pdf EWA Education Reform brief looks at how NCLB testing mandates are evolving, particularly with the federal education department's recent launch of a "growth model assessment" pilot program. 9/12/2006

No Child Left Behind and Science Education Reform Brief pdf Backgrounder looks at efforts to overhaul K-12 science education in light of new federal requirements. by Education Writers Association, 6/1/2006

EWA reform brief on NCLB and teacher quality pdf What makes a highly-qualified teacher? How is the Department of Education going to regulate this provision of NCLB? And does "highly-qualified" ensure high quality? This EWA brief tackles the questions about HOUSSE (a test given to educators to measure their knowledge of the subject matter) and what it means for teacher quality. Education Writers Association - Dale Mezzacappa, 2/3/2005

EWA reform brief on public school choice, tutoring and dangerous schools pdf Officials are still grappling with implementation of public school choice, supplemental services and unsafe schools. And, implementation of the provisions vary across states, and some familes are having more difficulty exercising their right to choose than others. Education Writers Association, 11/1/2004

EWA reform brief on the testing provisions of No Child Left Behind pdf The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act explains itself - every child in every public school should get the best possible education. The federal plan calls for states to establish standards - and assessments - that ensure all children reach proficiency in reading and math by 2014. How they do it, what standards they set and what tests they use, are left up to the states. Education Writers Association, 11/1/2004

NCLB and Rural Schools Across the country, states are concentrating efforts to meet the requirements and the spirit of No Child Left Behind. The implementation provisions and timelines are demanding and challenging for all districts. NCLB is particularly daunting, however, for rural and small districts. This paper outlines the characteristics of rural schools and districts that create special problems in implementing the legislation and summarizes the major challenges of the NCLB for these districts. The Rural School and Community Trust - Lorna Jimerson, Ed.D, 10/22/2003

Supplemental services States and school districts are now required to provide them to children and families in schools that need improvement and Nina Rees of the U.S. Department of Education explains the ins and outs of NCLB. Also includes frequently asked questions.

Making Sense of AYP Lists This Education Trust report addresses some of the most commonly asked questions about Adequate Yearly Progress. Education Trust - Ross Weiner, 9/1/2003

Disaggregated Data and NCLB Find out what data must be made publicly available at the state, district and individual school level under No Child Left Behind. by Education Trust, 9/1/2003

The Impact of NCLB on Students with Disabilities
Wednesday, August 20, 2003

The accountability requirements of No Child Left Behind hold schools accountable for the educational results of all children â?? including specifically those with disabilities. Too often in the past, students with disabilities were excluded from assessments and accountability systems, and the consequence was that they did not receive the attention that they deserved. Access and exposure to the general curriculum for students with disabilities often did not occur, and there was no external measure to indicate whether they were learning enough to attend post-secondary educational institutions or enter the workforce.

The Impact of NCLB on Students with Disabilities

Accountability for Assessment Results in the No Child Left Behind Act:

What It Means for Children with Disabilities

Excerpts from a publication published by the National Center on Educational Outcomes

August 2003

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The accountability requirements of No Child Left Behind hold schools accountable for the educational results of all children â?? including specifically those with disabilities. Too often in the past, students with disabilities were excluded from assessments and accountability systems, and the consequence was that they did not receive the attention that they deserved. Access and exposure to the general curriculum for students with disabilities often did not occur, and there was no external measure to indicate whether they were learning enough to attend post-secondary educational institutions or enter the workforce. â??

Several critical elements in No Child Left Behind ensure that schools are held accountable for educational results so that the best education possible is provided to each and every student. The three most critical elements to understand are: academic content standards, academic achievement standards, and assessments. These provide the foundation for an accountability system that ensures that students with disabilities reach high standards.

Academic content standards (what students should learn) and academic achievement standards (how well they should learn) in reading and mathematics form the foundation of the No Child Left Behind accountability system. Science will be added in 2007-2008. These standards define what all children should know and be able to do to be considered "proficient." Each state (usually with the help of parents, educators, businesses, and other community members) has defined what it sees as important knowledge and skills for students to achieve at specific grade levels. These standards should be available on a state education departmentâ??s Web site and in print documents that the state has available for the public.

State assessments are the mechanism for checking whether schools have been successful in teaching students the knowledge and skills defined by the content standards. By 2005-2006, states must provide assessments that are appropriate for all students in grades 3-8 and once in high school, including students with disabilities. Schools also must provide the accommodations and alternate assessments that may be needed by students with disabilities. Accommodations are changes to the assessment materials or procedures that allow for students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills rather than the effects of their disabilities. The accommodations needed by students with disabilities are defined within their IEPs. Some examples of accommodations are simplifying or repeating directions, marking answers in the test booklet instead of on the bubble sheet answer form, taking the assessment in a quiet room or study carrel, or using frequent breaks. Alternate assessments are assessments designed to measure the performance of students with disabilities who are unable to participate in state and district assessments even with appropriate accommodations. Typically, these assessments are designed for students with complex disabilities.

School accountability is based on measuring each schoolâ??s success in educating all of its students. The primary measure is progress toward the academic content and achievement standards assessed on state assessments. The No Child Left Behind accountability system is defined in terms of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), a way to measure the improvement in achieving standards for all students each year. Schools and states are held accountable for improvements on an annual basis by public reporting (as well as individualized reporting to parents), and ultimately through consequences if adequate results are not achieved.

In defining what counts as adequate yearly progress, states identify the regular incremental improvement required from year to year to result in all students reaching "proficient" status (as defined by the state) within 12 years by the 2013-2014 school year. Each stateâ??s definition of AYP should be available on the state education departmentâ??s Web site and in print documents that the state has available for the public. Assessment results that are entered into calculations of AYP for every school must be publicly reported, and schools that repeatedly do not make adequate progress must be identified as in need of improvement. â??

The results of state assessments for students with disabilities must be included in the determination of AYP along with the results of all other students, but they also must be considered separately. â??.Every group of students must make AYP if the school as a whole is to make its AYP target. It is this separate consideration that holds the promise that no child â?? not even the child with disabilities â?? is left behind in reaching proficiency in reading and math.

Questions and Answers

Question: How does a school meet AYP requirements?

Answer: States define the formulas that they will use to calculate what results a school must achieve to be considered as making adequate yearly progress. â??.The same formula must be applied to students with disabilities as is applied to other students in the educational system.

Question: Is anyone excluded from the No Child Left Behind requirements?

Answer: No. â?? States and districts must be able to show that at least 95% of all students, and of the students in each subgroup (including the disability subgroup), are included in assessment results in order to meet the accountability requirements. The 5% allows for absenteeism and other events not under the schoolâ??s control.

Question: Is there any way that a school might not be labeled as needing improvement, even though a group within the school did not meet the proficiency target?

Answer: Each school has a proficiency target that is the state-defined percentage of students who must achieve proficiency if a school is to avoid being identified as needing improvement. If a school does not meet this target, it may also make AYP if the school reduces the number of students in a group considered to be "below proficient" by at least 10%. This applies for the disability subgroup just as for every other subgroup and for the total population of students in a school. â??.

Question: What are the group size requirements of No Child Left Behind?

Answer: Whenever assessment results are used in statistical formulas, it is important to have confidence in the accuracy of the numbers. One technical concern is the size of the subgroup â?? the law requires that it be large enough for results to be "statistically sound" and not to reveal the identity of an individual student. States define the minimum size of a subgroup needed to obtain good assessment data for making decisions about whether a school is considered to need improvement.

Question: What are the "consequences" mentioned in No Child Left Behind?

Answer: States are required to develop a system of sanctions and rewards for all public schools based on AYP. States are required to identify Title I schools for improvement if they do not show adequate progress for two consecutive years. The consequences of needing improvement increase in intensity if a Title I school continues not to meet AYP goals. For example, in the first year of needing improvement, a consequence is that it receives technical assistance to address the achievement problem. In addition, students are offered public school choice, and the school must develop a school improvement plan.

If the school fails to make AYP goals an additional year, then the school must provide supplemental educational services to disadvantaged children who remain at the school. These services are provided in addition to instruction provided during the school day, and are specifically designed to increase student achievement on the assessments that measure proficiency on the achievement standards set for all students. Parents may choose these services from a list of approved providers. For students with disabilities who receive supplemental services, the services must be consistent with the studentâ??s IEP.

After several years of not making adequate yearly progress, a school will engage in significant corrective action, such as replacing school staff. Web site resources listed at the end of this document provide information on specific interventions that may occur.

The promise of No Child Left Behind for students with disabilities is that â?? they will be held to high standards that will help prepare them successfully to leave school ready to attend a postsecondary institution or be employed. This is what schools should be doing. Thus, it is important to support schools in making this promise a reality. For students with disabilities, there are three critical elements to realizing the promise of No Child Left Behind: (1) good IEP team decisions about assessment participation, (2) appropriate assessments via accommodations or alternate assessments, and (3) realistic views of other assessment approaches.â??

Assessment Participation Decisions. For each student with a disability, the decision about how that student will participate in the state assessment system is made by the studentâ??s Individualized Educational Program (IEP) team. This team should not be deciding whether the student participates at all, but instead should be making decisions about how the student participates.

Appropriate Assessments via Accommodations and Alternate Assessments. Students with disabilities may participate in state assessments in the same way as other students or with accommodations or by participating in alternate assessments measured against the same academic achievement standards as all students.

Currently, the U.S. Department of Education is considering a federal regulation that would permit States to establish alternate achievement standards against which to measure the achievement of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.

The NPRM proposed to limit, for calculating adequate yearly progress (AYP), the percent of students who could be considered proficient as measured against alternate achievement standards to 1.0 percent of a district or Stateâ??s school-age population in the grades tested in order to ensure that only truly significantly cognitively impaired students were held to different standards. This would only be a limit for purposes of calculating

AYP, and not a limit on how many students could be tested with an alternate assessment.

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Other Assessment Approaches. There are a number of approaches to assessment that may not be the best practice for accountability. For example, it is not the best practice for the IEP team to decide that a student should take an easier test if the school should be teaching the student grade-level skills, but has not.

Steps to Take. â??.First, strive for every possible student to be included in the general assessment â?? allowing for approved accommodations as needed. Second, make accommodation decisions very carefully. Finally, insist that assessments are the best measures that they can be for all students â?? including students with disabilities. Ask for assessments that have universal design features â?? assessments that have been designed from the beginning to be appropriate for the widest range of students.â??..

Questions and Answers

Question: What do IEP teams need to consider in making participation decisions?

Answer: â??The first decision for the IEP team to make is whether the student participates in the same assessment as most students or in an alternate assessment. In most states, the only students who participate in alternate assessments are those with significant cognitive disabilities who have instructional goals that are different from the goals of most students.

For those students who are participating in the regular assessment, the next decision is about accommodations that might be needed to demonstrate knowledge and skills. Many states have guidelines that help in making these decisions. The guidelines focus on what the assessment requires the student to do and what instructional accommodations the student generally receives.

Question: What should the IEP team do if the child needs a "modification" or nonallowed accommodation" to participate in an assessment?

Answer: Some accommodations may invalidate a test. For example, reading a test to the student may invalidate a reading test. Many states have terms for such problematic test changes, such as "modification," "inappropriate accommodation," or "nonallowed accommodation," and may have policies limiting the use of the scores produced.

Federal policy under IDEA allows States to give the IEP team full authority to select accommodations needed for the child to participate in an assessment, even if the

accommodation invalidates the test, or, States may instruct IEP teams to only select accommodations and modifications in the administration of an assessment that the State has determined will not invalidate the results of a particular test or portion of a test. In this later case, if an IEP team were to determine that an accommodation or modification in administration needed by a child would invalidate the test results, the IEP team should determine how the child could appropriately be assessed, such as through an alternate

assessment. Results from invalid tests may not count as proficient when determining whether a school has met its proficiency target. Clearly, school personnel must be aware of the policy options in their State, and IEP teams must be aware of the consequences of accommodation decisions for students with disabilities and need to ensure that parents understand the consequences.

Question: Do No Child Left Behind decisions affect graduation requirements?

Answer: No Child Left Behind is about school accountability. It does not determine whether a student with a disability will have to repeat a grade or earn a regular diploma. These "high stakes" consequences for students generally are determined by state and local laws.

Web site of the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO): http://education.umn.edu/nceo

This Web site provides a wealth of information about the participation of students with disabilities in assessment and accountability systems, with brief discussions of a variety of related topics, questions and answers for each topic, and lists of online and other resources.

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE

This Web site gives the user access to the No Child Left Behind Act, cross-cutting information on standards, assessment, and accountability, related regulations and guidance, as well as numerous forms of technical assistance and other resources.

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP

This Web site provides information on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and numerous technical assistance centers and other resources to help bridge the connection between the No Child Left Behind Act and IDEA.

Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education

This book reviews and synthesizes relevant research from economics, psychology, education, and related fields about how incentives work in educational accountability systems. It helps identify circumstances in which test-based incentives may have a positive or a negative impact on student learning and offers recommendations for how to improve current test-based accountability policies. National Research Council of the National Academies, May 26, 2011

The Condition of Education 2009 is an integrated collection of the indicators and analyses and is produced by the National Center for Education Statistics. 6/2/2009

School test scores improve slightly
by Emily Johns and James Walsh
While scores show a slight increase across the board in Minnesota, black students were 36 percentage points behind their white counterparts in math and reading. Check out student test scores by school districts that reporters compiled in an online feature.
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6/30/2008

Has Student Achievement Improved Since 2002? State Test Score Trends Through 2006-07
The Center on Education Policy released "Has Student Achievement Increased Since 2002?" Student state test scores in reading and math have risen and the achievement gaps between groups of students---specifically African American and poor children -- are narrowing. CEP analyzed state test data from 50 states and trends from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)-the federal administered assessment of students on reading and math subjects.
Center for Education Policy - Nancy Kober, Naomi Chudowsky, Victor Chudowsky, 6/24/2008

The 2007 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well Are American Students Learning? pdf
This year's Brown Center Report focuses on the nation's testing achievement, private school enrollment and the impact of time on learning math.
The Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution - Tom Loveless, 12/11/2007

Reading Tests that Misread Children
Screening tests widely used to identify children with reading problems are being misapplied, landing students in the wrong instructional level and delaying treatment for their true difficulties, says new research from National-Louis University and the University of Maryland.
University of Marylan College Parkand National-Louis University - Rochelle Newman, Diane German, 11/19/2007

Standards-Based Reform and the Poverty Gap
The Brookings Institution has released a report examining No Child Left Behind's effect on the education of the nation's poor children. Researchers said there have been some positive effects for students in the improvement of teacher quality.
The Brookings Institution - Thomas Dee, Laura Desimone, George Farkas, Barbara Foorman, Brian Jacob, Robert M. Hauser, Paul Hill, 11/9/2007

Are Private High Schools Better Academically Than Public High Schools?
The study released by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) examines 12 years of data that finds students who attended private schools didn't have much of an advantage over their peers who attended public high schools in regard to test scores, career happiness, and civic engagement. Family involvement is key and the study finds that low-income students from urban public high schools generally did as well if they had a good support system.
Center on Education Policy (CEP) - Harold Wenglinsky, 10/10/2007

Title I and Early Childhood Programs: A Look at Investments in the NCLB Era pdf
Title I funds under NCLB can be spent on early childhood education. It's an opportunity for schools and school districts to increase investments in high-quality early education initiatives, which may have long-term benefits for at-risk children.
Center for Law and Social Policy - Danielle Ewen and Hannah Matthews, 10/1/2007

Open to the Public: How Communities, Parents and Students Assess the Impact of the No Child Left Behind Act 2004 - 2007 The Realities Left Behind pdf
This report summarizes the opinions that the Public Education Network culled from students, parents and community leaders who participated in 25 public hearings, forums, focus groups and online surveys on NCLB held over three years across the country. Their view was that NCLB must have a more compelling vision, strong policies to support it, and greater public engagement.
Public Education Network - Anne Lewis, 7/30/2007

Choices, Changes, and Challenges: Curriculum and Instruction in the NCLB Era
This report examines time spent during the school week on core academic subjects and how that's changed since NCLB was enacted in the 2001-2002 school year. It finds that approximately 62 percent of school districts increased the amount of time spent in elementary schools on English/language arts and or math, while 44 percent of districts cut time on science, social studies, art and music, physical education, lunch or recess.
Center on Education Policy - Jennifer McMurrer, 7/24/2007

School District Perspectives on State Capacity
This report is a supplement to another CEP report, "Educational Architects: Do State Education Agencies Have the Capacity to Implement NCLB?" It confirms that state education agencies are playing a significant role in assisting Title I school districts in carrying out the requirements of No Child Left Behind.
Center on Education Policy - Deanna D. Hill, 7/19/2007

Rewards and Roadblocks: How Special Education Students are Faring Under No Child Left Behind pdf
Advocacy group points out that NCLB's requirement that the test scores of all students, including special education students, be included in assessing a school has shed light on the progress of those students. The report recommends Congress keep the Adequate Yearly Progress for all students requirement in place while adding a growth model that would track the progress of individual students, plus more.
National Center for Learning Disabilities, 7/6/2007

Standards, Accountability and Flexibility: Americans Speak on No Child Left Behind Reauthorization
ETS's seventh annual public opinion poll reveals that parents, teachers and administrators strongly support No Child Left Behind reauthorization, despite limited knowledge about the law's provisions. The survey also shows a majority of adults think state standards and tests should be replaced with one national standard and test.
ETS, 6/20/2007

Commission on No Child Left Behind
The report is the result of a commission's work to produce concrete recommendations on how to improve the No Child Left Behind Act and specifically its impact on closing the achievement gap. Housed at the Aspen Institute, the bipartisan commission is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Spencer Foundation.
6/14/2007

Myths and Facts about Highly-Qualified and Effective Teachers pdf
The Commission on No Child Left Behind explains how the Highly Qualified Teacher part of NCLB does work and how it could be improved in a concise Q&A format.
Aspen Institute - Jennifer Smith , 6/14/2007

AFT's recommendations for improving NCLB pdf
The American Federation of Teachers believes flaws in the No Child Left Behind law are undercutting its original promise. Here, the organization details its ideas for changes in the areas of assessment and accountability, school improvement interventions, staffing schools, funding and systemwide accountability.
American Federation of Teachers, 6/14/2007

Performance Pay for Teachers: Designing a System that Students Deserve
Teachers from across the United States authored this report that concludes teachers would support pay for performance plans that "advance student achievement and the teaching profession." The report recommends rewarding teachers who raise student achievement while working in small groups or agree to work in high-needs schools and paying teachers according to their success in the classroom, not their level of education or experience.
Center for Teaching Quality, 4/11/2007

The Autonomy Gap
Public school principals encounter a sizable gap between the autonomy they believe they need to be effective and the autonomy that they actually have in practice, especially when it comes to hiring, firing, and transferring teachers. That's a key finding of this report from the Fordham Institute and the American Institutes for Research, which is based on a series of interviews with a small sample of district and charter-school principals.
by Steven Adamowski, 4/11/2007

Most Schools Flagged For Possible Cheating Likely To Be Cleared

Most of the 90 Pennsylvania schools whose results raised red flags for possible cheating on the 2009 state assessment test probably did nothing wrong, and the Department of Education likely will clear them, a department spokesman said. Jodi Weigand, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Aug. 16, 2011

From One Struggling School to Another

More than half of the teachers pushed out of seven underperforming schools in Boston last year now work at other low-achieving schools across the city that are also under pressure to improve, according to a Boston Globe analysis. James Vaznis, Boston Globe, July 5, 2011

Diane Ravitch, the Anti-Rhee

Somewhat improbably, this former education official from the first Bush administration has emerged as the most media-savvy progressive critic of the reform campaign embraced by everyone from Education Secretary Arne Duncan to billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates—a campaign that, in the public mind, is perhaps most associated with former D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Dana Goldstein, Washington City Paper, June 24, 2011

No Child Left Behind: Education Secretary Says He Will Act If Congress Doesn't

The U.S. secretary of education says if Congress doesn't reauthorize No Child Left Behind, he'll deal with schools directly. The announcement has ruffled some feathers in Virginia. Matt Laslo, WAMU, June 21, 2011

Obama Uses Radio Address to Make Case for NCLB Overhaul

Trying to make his case for overhauling the nation's education laws, President Barack Obama is highlighting progress at a Tennessee high school as evidence that the proper incentives can help all schools succeed. But prospects for an overhaul this year don't seem bright, given that the economy, jobs and deficit are dominating the agenda. Associated Press, May 23, 2011

When Standardized Test Scores Soared in D.C., Were the Gains Real?

A USA Today investigation found that for the past three school years most of Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus classrooms had extraordinarily high numbers of erasures on standardized tests. The consistent pattern was that wrong answers were erased and changed to right ones. Noyes is one of 103 public schools that have had erasure rates that surpassed D.C. averages at least once since 2008. That's more than half of D.C. schools. Jack Gillum and Marisol Bello, USA Today, March 28, 2011

Most Public Schools May Miss Targets, Education Secretary Says

More than 80,000 of the nation’s 100,000 public schools could be labeled as failing under No Child Left Behind, the main federal law on public education, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told Congress on Wednesday. Sam Dillon, New York Times, March 9, 2011

Senators pledge to work jointly on education

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators pledged Wednesday to work together to revamp the federal No Child Left Behind education law, a day after President Barack Obama called on lawmakers in his State of the Union address to speed up overhaul of the Bush-era policy. Associated Press, Jan. 27, 2011

Kentucky Auditors Put Microscope on 3 Low Performing Louisville Schools

Doss, Fairdale and Seneca high schools — among six Jefferson County schools recently placed on a list of Kentucky's 10 “persistently low achieving” schools — are under the microscope this week by auditors who will judge whether the staff at each school has the leadership and teaching capabilities to raise low test scores. Chris Kenning and Antoinette Konz, Louisville Courier-Journal, Dec. 8, 2010

California's Parent Trigger

On a recent afternoon in Compton, Mary Najera of Boyle Heights is making a sale in the peach-colored dining room of a tidy home. But she isn't selling cosmetics or Tupperware. She's pitching to a young mother a radical new tool of school reform in California — the Parent Trigger. Patrick Range McDonald, LA Weekly, Dec. 9, 2010

Prosecutor Says Baltimore School Officials Stonewalled Investigation into Tutoring Fraud 

Maryland State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh today is blasting Baltimore City Public School officials for stonewalling investigators and refusing to turn over documents, as his office sought to build a case against the owner of a private tutoring company which allegedly bilked the system out of more than $100,000 using a fraudulent-billing scam. Fern Shen and Oliver Hulland, Baltimore Brew, Nov. 13, 2010. A journalist whose signature was forged recounts her story.

Champion on the Ropes

The worst middle school in Ohio is on the Near East Side, surrounded by a rough neighborhood and mired in failure despite every effort to fix it. Will the latest overhaul make any difference? Jennifer Smith Richards, Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 3, 2010

The Data War in Local Schools

The federal government demands that more and more kids at Edison Elementary School in San Diego score "proficient" on state tests every year. It sounds good to politicians and the press, but the teachers know it isn't that simple.The problem: The tests don't track how much each child improves. Instead, they measure how each group of children scores compared to the last group. So Edison is actually trying to get a whole new set of third graders to do better than the last crop of third graders. Emily Alpert, Voice of San Diego, Oct. 3, 2010

Obama Calls for Major Change in Education Law
The Obama administration called for a broad overhaul of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, proposing to reshape divisive provisions that encouraged instructors to teach to tests, narrowed the curriculum, and labeled one in three American schools as failing. Sam Dillon, The New York Times, March 15, 2010

Scholar’s School Reform U-Turn Shakes Up Debate
Diane Ravitch, the education historian who built her intellectual reputation battling progressive educators and served in the first Bush administration’s Education Department, is in the final stages of an astonishing, slow-motion about-face on almost every stand she once took on American schooling. Sam Dillon, The New York Times, March 3, 2010

Former 'No Child Left Behind' Advocate Turns Critic
In 2005, former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch wrote, "We should thank President George W. Bush and Congress for passing the No Child Left Behind Act ... All this attention and focus is paying off for younger students, who are reading and solving mathematics problems better than their parents' generation." Four years later, Ravitch has changed her mind. Steve Inskeep, National Public Radio, March 2, 2010

Lawmakers to launch bipartisan effort to rewrite No Child Left Behind
Senior House Republicans and Democrats plan to announce Thursday that they will team up to rewrite the No Child Left Behind education law, a rare show of bipartisanship in the polarized Congress. Nick Anderson, The Washington Post, Feb. 19, 2010

New course for No Child Left Behind
President Barack Obama is seeking a major overhaul of the U.S. education system, with a shift from an emphasis on testing to an emphasis on career preparation a plan that he is backing up with billions in budget incentives. Nia-Malika Henderson, Politico.com, Feb. 5, 2010

Experts Say a Rewrite of Nation's Main Education Law Will Be Hard This Year
In his State of the Union address, President Obama held out the hope of overhauling the main law outlining the federal role in public schools, a sprawling 45-year-old statute that dates to the Johnson administration. But experts say it would be a heavy lift for the administration to get the job done this year because the law has produced so much discord, there is so little time and there are so many competing priorities. Sam Dillon, The New York Times, Jan. 29, 2010

Congress axes money for early reading

By Alyssa Sunkin, Times Herald-Record (NY)

Congress has stopped funding the elementary school program Reading First and its sister, Early Reading First, which targeted preschool kids. Jan. 18, 2010

Educators await Obama's mark on No Child Left Behind
Eight years after President George W. Bush signed the bill that branded an era of school reform, the education world is wondering when President Obama will seek to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law. Obama officials, who for months have been on a "listening and learning" tour, are expected to propose a framework for the successor to a law that is two years overdue for reauthorization. Nick Anderson, The Washington Post, Jan. 11, 2010

Who’s failing the student or the test?
by Mary Wiltenburg
Refugee Bill Clinton Hadam’s tears of frustration in school have ended and he relishes challenge. But his progress is not considered adequate by federal government standards.What does it mean, in America’s public schools, for a student to fail? What does it mean for a school to fail its students? The current national framework for answering these questions the 2002 No Child Left Behind act (NCLB) could not be more controversial. Meantime, critics and proponents agree on this: Finding a good way to describe and evaluate student success is key to the future of public education.
The Christian Science Monitor, 2/11/2009

The Local List: Challenge Index 2008 Well-Connected Parents Take On School Boards
For a new generation of well-wired activists in the Washington region, it's not enough to speak at Parent-Teacher Association or late-night school board meetings. They are going head-to-head with superintendents through e-mail blitzes, social networking Web sites, online petitions, partnerships with business and student groups, and research that mines a mountain of electronic data on school performance.
The Washington Post - Michael Alison Chandler, 1/30/2009

Graduating ASAP, if Not on State Timeline
by Theresa Vargas
An hour and a half after his night shift ended at the grocery store, Jefferson Lara is sitting in art class, sketching warriors. Lara's education has never been neatly laid out in class schedules that flow into extracurricular activities. It mattered little to him that he wouldn't graduate with his peers in June -- he still would get his diploma. As the nation moves toward adopting a common graduation rate formula based on the number of students who obtain a diploma in four years, there are students such as Lara who will appear to have been failed by their school systems. They will not be counted as graduating on time. But what should be taken into account, educators say, is that many are succeeding -- just not on the traditional timeline.
The Washington Post, 11/11/2008

Suffering test anxiety
by Liz Bowie
Inti Guaman is a senior on the brink of either going off to college or staying behind to get through high school. It all depends on how quickly he is able to soak up vocabulary words so that he can pass his High School Assessment exam in English II.
The Baltimore Sun, 10/30/2008

School’s Success Gives Way to Doubt
by Adam Nossiter
MiShawna Moore has been a hero in the worn neighborhoods behind Charleston, S.C.venerable mansions, a school principal who fed her underprivileged students, clothed them, found presents for them at Christmas and sometimes roused neglectful parents out of bed in the nearby housing projects. As test scores rocketed at her school, Sanders-Clyde Elementary, the city held her up as a model. Somehow, Ms. Moore had transformed one of Charleston’s worst schools into one of its best, a rare breakthrough in a city where the state has deemed more than half the schools unsatisfactory. It seemed almost too good to be true. It may have been.
The New York Times, 10/30/2008

Science Evolves in Classrooms
by Daniel de Vise
In the past six years, science has slipped as a priority in public schools while reading and mathematics have grown dominant. But in coming years, experts say, the same federal law that elevated reading and math could spark a resurgence of science in the classroom. The 2002 No Child Left Behind law required states to test students in science starting in the 2007-08 year, on top of reading and math assessments mandated from the start.
The Washington Post, 10/27/2008

School Attendance Law 'Gone Awry'
by Daniel de Vise
Stephen Knolls School in Maryland suffered the ignominy of failure under federal law in 2006 and 2007 for low test scores. This year, the Kensington school finally made the grade in reading and math -- only to be sanctioned for poor attendance. The challenge in this case is not truancy. Stephen Knolls serves medically fragile children with severe physical and cognitive disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida and Rett syndrome.

Growing number of English learners in county threatens pass-rate progress
by Chris Moran
Local schools are enrolling a growing number of students who don't speak English students who typically fare poorly on standardized tests at a time when the federal No Child Left Behind Act calls for unprecedented test score gains. The increase would be enough to fill three large high schools or every classroom in the Ramona Unified School District, making the federal goal of a 100-percent pass rate in math and reading in five years almost impossible, educators say.
San Diego Union Tribune, 10/14/2008

Many schools could get left behind
by Jenny LaCoste- Caputo
Just two months ago, the Texas Education Agency released a glowing report card for Bexar County: The number of top-rated schools here more than doubled, and the number of low-performing schools plummeted from nine to two. Today will be different. The state is scheduled to release the names of schools that failed to meet the federal government's standard for the 2007-08 school year, and schools across San Antonio are bracing for bad news.
San Antonio Express, 10/14/2008

Deterred from Diplomas for Better or Worse
by Emily Alpert
Questions are rising about whether San Diego Unified has wrongly tagged some students with disabilities, deeming them unlikely to earn an ordinary diploma. Newly released data show that roughly 13 percent of disabled children in San Diego Unified have been marked as "non-diploma bound," some as early as first grade. Some have mental retardation or severe autism; others live with learning disabilities or orthopedic impairments.
Voice of San Diego, 10/2/2008

A Teachable Moment by Paul Tough Can a change in the governance model solve the problems affecting New Orleans public schools? School reform leaders and new teacher recruits who flocked to the city after Hurricane Katrina believe it is possible. However, can a school system that has been historically mismanaged for years boost student achievement outside of social change? Read this New York Times Magazine article to see how leaders are handling this urban education experiment. The New York Times Sunday Magazine, 8/15/2008

Summer Often Spells No Vacation From Homework
Concerned that students may lose academic skills over the summer months, many schools have implemented a vacation work packet. However, some Washington-area educators seem to be rethinking whether summer assignments help students.
The Washington Post - Donna St. George, 8/5/2008

Poor students get fewer top teachers
by Ron Matus, Connie Humburg and Donna Winchester
Poor students in the Tampa Bay area are less likely than their affluent peers to be taught by teachers who are widely considered the best, according to a St. Petersburg Times analysis.The Times looked at the distribution of more than 1,000 teachers in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties who have achieved national board certification, which is often viewed as the gold standard of good teaching.
St. Petersburg Times, 8/3/2008

School test scores improve slightly
by Emily Johns and James Walsh
While scores show a slight increase across the board in Minnesota, black students were 36 percentage points behind their white counterparts in math and reading. Check out student test scores by school districts that reporters compiled in an online feature.
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6/30/2008

Oregon sets new high school diploma requirements
by Betsy Hammond
Oregon students will have to pass state reading, math and writing tests, or prove they have the equivalent skills, to get a high school diploma, beginning with this fall's freshmen.
The Oregonian, 6/20/2008

Immigrant students: A year in the life of new immigrant students
by Macarena Hernandez and Gary Jacobson
Read this Dallas Morning News series about Dallas area schools trying to meet the growing demands of students coming from Mexico.
The Dallas Morning News, 6/7/2008

Are gifted students getting left out?
by Carla Rivera
With schools under intense pressure from state and federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind to raise test scores of low-achieving pupils, the educational needs of gifted students -- who usually perform well on standardized tests -- too often are ignored, advocates say.
The Los Angeles Times, 5/12/2008

Study Questions 'No Child' Act's Reading Plan
by Maria Glod
Students enrolled in a $6 billion federal reading program that is at the heart of the No Child Left Behind law are not reading any better than those who don't participate, according to a U.S. government report. The study released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Education's research arm found that students in schools that use Reading First, which provides grants to improve elementary school reading, scored about the same on comprehension tests as their peers who attended schools that did not receive program money.
Washington Post, 5/2/2008

States' Data Obscure How Few Finish High School
by Sam Dillon
Many states use an inflated graduation rate for federal reporting requirements under the No Child Left Behind law and a different one at home. As a result, researchers say, federal figures obscure a dropout epidemic so severe that only about three-quarters of the one million American students who start ninth grade graduate four years later.
The New York Times, 3/20/2008

Brave new world for Chicago schools
by Kayce T. Ataiyero and Carlos Sadovi
No school district in the nation has yet managed what Chicago officials proposed last week: a sweeping, simultaneous overhaul of a cluster of failing schools. Experts say the plan to fire the staffs of eight schools and replace them with better qualified educators is somewhat of a gamble, one that will require an almost perfect alignment of stellar principals, committed teachers and re-invigorated curriculum and programs to succeed. But that's no guarantee.
The Chicago Tribune, 1/29/2008

GRADUATION MATTERS: How NCLB allows states to set the bar too low for improving high school grad rates
Despite the national focus on reforming America's high schools, most states are setting woefully low goals for improving graduation rates and are not setting goals for ensuring that more low-income, minority, disabled and English language learner students graduate, according to this report from The Education Trust.
The Education Trust - Daria Hall, 8/1/2007

What It Means to Make 'Adequate Yearly Progress' Under NCLB
This Education Sector Explainer provides an aid to understanding how NCLB's accountability system works overall and in different states, without weighing in on the merits of the law's 2014 goal. It includes a discussion of the basics of "making" AYP and the multiple routes schools can take to get there and data showing what the requirements are in each state to meet AYP this year and for the past two years.
Education Sector, 7/24/2007