No Child Left Behind? The Politics and Practice of School Accountability

by Peterson, Paul E.; West, Martin R.

• ISBN13: 9780815770282
• ISBN10: 0815770286
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-11-18
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Summary

The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act is the most important legislation in American education since the 1960s. The law requires states to put into place a set of standards together with a comprehensive testing plan designed to ensure these standards are met. Students at schools that fail to meet those standards may leave for other schools, and schools not progressing adequately become subject to reorganization. The significance of the law lies less with federal dollar contributions than with the direction it gives to federal, state, and local school spending. It helps codify the movement toward common standards and school accountability.Yet NCLB will not transform American schools overnight. The first scholarly assessment of the new legislation, No Child Left Behind? breaks new ground in the ongoing debate over accountability. Contributors examine the law's origins, the political and social forces that gave it shape, the potential issues that will surface with its implementation, and finally, the law's likely consequences for American education.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
1 The Politics and Practice of Accountability	1	(1)
Martin R. West and Paul E. Peterson
Part One: The Politics of Accountability	2	(125)
2 No Child Left Behind: Forging a Congressional Compromise	23	(32)
Andrew Rudalevige
3 Refining or Retreating? High-Stakes Accountability in the States	55	(25)
Frederick M Hess
4 Politics, Control, and the Future of School Accountability	80	(27)
Terry M. Moe
5 Rethinking Accountability Politics	107	(20)
Jennifer Hochschild
Part Two: The Practice of School Accountability
6 Lessons about the Design of State Accountability Systems	127	(25)
Eric A. Hanushek and Margaret E, Raymond
7 Unintended Consequences of Racial Subgroup Rules	152	(25)
Thomas J. Kane and Douglas O. Staiger
8 Charter School Achievement and Accountability	177	(20)
Tom Loveless
9 The Effects of Accountability in California	197
Julian R. Betts and Anne Danenberg
Part Three: The Promise of Student Accountability
10 The "First Wave" of Accountability	215	(27)
Thomas S. Dee
11 No Child Left Behind, Chicago Style	242	(27)
Anthony S. Bryk
12 A Closer Look at Achievement Gains under High-Stakes Testing in Chicago	269	(23)
Brian A. Jacob
13 Central Exit Exams and Student Achievement: International Evidence	292	(33)
Ludgen Wößmann
Contributors	325	(2)
Index	327