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July 23, 2007
Debate intensifies over NCLB's impact
With a report released last month by the Center on Education Policy, arguments over the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) are still percolating in the hallowed halls of Congress and beyond.
In its fifth annual assessment of NCLB, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) concluded that student achievement has improved since the law was enacted but that gains can't be definitively attributed to the law. BoardBuzz covered the report's release here.
In Answering the Question that Matters Most: Has student achievement increased since No Child Left Behind? CEP found that:
• Math and reading scores on state assessments were improving since 2002.
• Achievement gaps were narrowing in more states than not.
• Students were making greater gains after NCLB than before NCLB in 9 of the 13 states for which CEP had sufficient trend data.
Proponents of NCLB quickly pointed to the report as evidence that NCLB is indeed increasing student achievement. Critics of NCLB emphasize that CEP clearly stated that it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether the increases were because of NCLB.
So has student achievement improved since NCLB was put into law in 2002? Here's our take. According to NSBA's Center for Public Education, CEP makes a strong case for concluding that it has, but by how much is not clear. The Center adds that, as CEP itself observes, it's not possible to isolate the effects of the law from federal, state, and local school improvement efforts that have been underway before and since 2002. Read what else the Center has to say about the report here.
Instead of waiting for researchers to agree (scheduled to occur at approximately the same time that pigs fly), school board members should use their unique vantage point to evaluate how their own policy decisions have been influenced by NCLB and what impact those decisions have had on student achievement.
And with reauthorization of the law looming, BoardBuzz reminds you to encourage your representatives in Congress to support H.R. 648, NSBA’s bill to improve NCLB. Learn more by visiting NSBA's Advocacy & Legislation web pages.
Posted July 23, 2007 12:58 PM |
No Child Left Behind
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