This article examines several important moments in the history of mathematics education history to provide another lens through which to view modern mathematics education in the United States. At the turn of the twentieth century, mathematics education in the United States had been the subject of educational concern for more than a century.…

Although much of the national opt-out movement is parent driven, the Colorado opt-out movement involved considerable efforts from high school students. This study explores the geography of the Colorado opt-out movement among secondary students, drawing upon social movements theory. We utilize the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) as a…

Results-based school accountability has been the linchpin of education reform in the United States for at least two decades. But the COVID-19 pandemic led many schools, states, and districts to put their testing and accountability programs on hold. Chester E. Finn, Jr., argues that it is time for the accountability holiday to end and makes…

Despite many calls, there is little research addressing teachers' knowledge of reading assessments and how they utilize assessments for reading instruction. Therefore, the current research developed and validated a reliable measure of teachers' perceptions and knowledge of reading assessments, called the "Perceptions and Knowledge of…

Background/Context: In the spring of 2015, about 135,000 New Jersey students--almost 20% of the test-eligible children--did not take the state's test. Opposition of this magnitude directly contradicted a central stipulation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), which required states to test 95% of their eligible students to…

The COVID-19 pandemic heightened tensions around standardized testing policy and prompted the United States Department of Education to allow states to request waivers from federal standardized testing requirements. Paul Bruno and Dan Goldhaber describe the waivers that states requested and received, what they suggest about how state test results…

For the last 40 years, business leaders, philanthropists, and a host of nonprofit advocacy groups have pushed for higher standards, academic rigor, standardized testing, and newer models of educating children. But, today, some of these reformers are feeling disillusioned and believe that the investments intended to transform education and provide…

Education systems focus on issues related to school effects and differences. School effects are used as a basis for accountability in various countries including China. This study investigated the stability and cross-disciplinary consistency of value-added estimates based on student scores in selected schools in a city in central China. The…

The Testing Industrial Complex (TIC) is a system (and at the same time a cycle) in which high-stakes standardized testing fuels neoliberal education reforms and vice versa. These "reforms" and cycles have monetized for profit the public education system in which curriculum, students, and teachers have been packaged and sold for corporate…

State summative assessments play an important role in measuring student learning and guiding educational improvement efforts, despite their limitations. But there is growing momentum in individual states and nationally to rethink these assessments with an eye toward reducing time spent on testing and increasing the tests' instructional relevance.…

When COVID-19 forced a hiatus in federally mandated assessments in spring 2020, it interrupted a quarter century of effort to track, disaggregate, and publicize achievement levels at the school level. The aborted school year put a big data gap where 2020 scores should have been. Combined with the already raging assaults on testing, state education…

The use of test scores as a performance measure in high-stakes educational accountability has become increasingly popular since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), which imposed sanctions such as the threat of losing federal funds unless a state implemented a school accountability system that measures student progress…

School turnaround has emerged as a predominant strategy to improve chronically low-performing schools, although the approach remains controversial. This meta-analysis synthesizes results from 35 studies to examine the relationship between school turnaround and various student outcomes. We find that school turnaround is associated with improved…

In recent years, the federal government (under Republican and Democratic administrations alike) has encouraged the outsourcing of core parts of public education's work, including testing and test preparation, teaching and tutoring, data collection, and human resources management. However, researchers have found little evidence to support policy…

There has been much debate by and among federal and state education agencies, state legislatures, courts, and educators regarding the identification of school district expenditures that best facilitate effective and efficient schools. The issue of equitable funding is far from being resolved (Education Week, 2017). Contradictory studies associated…