Purpose: As the federal government has retreated from taking a dominant role in encouraging implementation of common K-12 standards, states and districts have moved to fill this education policy vacuum. This study aims to understand how state and district leaders are navigating this new policy environment. Research Methods/Approach: Drawing upon…

Purpose: As the federal government has retreated from taking a dominant role in encouraging implementation of common K-12 standards, states and districts have moved to fill this education policy vacuum. This study aims to understand how state and district leaders are navigating this new policy environment. Research Methods/Approach: Drawing upon…

State accountability systems have been a primary school reform initiative in the US for the past 20 years, but often produce unintended negative consequences. In 2004, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) implemented the Performance Based Monitoring and Analysis System (PBMAS), which included an accountability indicator focused on the percentage of…

The researcher briefly reviewed the Response to Intervention (RtI) framework and explained how Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA, 2004) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) enhanced RtI implementation in general education classrooms. The main focus of this paper is to identify general educators' roles when implementing RtI…

This qualitative study explored educators' sense making of and responses to No Child Left Behind and the Common Core State Standards at one urban Expeditionary Learning middle school. Sense-making theory (Spillane, Reiser, & Reimer, 2002) and inquiry as stance (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) were used as complementary conceptual frameworks…

In December 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as the nation's major law governing public schools. ESSA retains the requirement that states test all students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school, as well as the requirement that…

A national study examined the perceptions of educational leaders and classroom leaders as to the changes that have occurred in public P-12 schools since the inception of No Child Left Behind. Administrators and teachers who had remained in the same district for five years, and who had been in the field of education since at least 2002, were asked…

Academic performance of students in public schools is a growing concern for school districts in the United States. The No Child Left Behind Act (No Child Left Behind [NCLB] 2001) has attempted to increase academic success, improve behavior, and promote positive school culture. Although equity has been achieved in some areas, the achievement gap…

During the 2013-2014 school year, Austin Independent School District served more than 23,000 English language learner students in bilingual or English as a second language programs. This report summarizes these students' English language proficiency gains as well as academic performance on the state's required assessments during that school year.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represent an unprecedented change in American education. As an increasingly integral part of the school accountability movement under No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, responsibility for implementing CCSS rests largely with school leadership. One important factor in the success or failure of these…

With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2002) and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004), the inclusion of students with disabilities (SWDs) in general education classrooms has become more prevalent within our public schools (DuFour & Eaker, 1998; Mcleskey et al., 2010). Current…

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind legislation in 2002, principals have been held accountable for fulfilling a segment of it known as the Teacher Quality provision. This study examines how principals with varying levels of capacity to address the problem were either successful or unsuccessful in meeting the mandate using a wide variety…

Using a case study design, with a phenomenological perspective, this research focused on a sample of primary classroom teachers (grades K-3rd grade) in south central Pennsylvania who are currently using and have been using Responsive Classroom® (RC) strategies for an extended period of time. Their perspectives provide insight into their use of…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe one Connecticut middle school's voluntary implementation of a data-driven decision making process in order to improve student academic performance. Data-driven decision making is a component of Connecticut's accountability system to assist schools in meeting the requirements of the No…

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare key elements of the actions that states in the USA and Australia took to implement the Common Core State Standards or Phase One of the Australian Curriculum, and what processes and products they used to facilitate implementation of these innovations. A rubric adapted from a diagnostic tool,…