Recent legislation such as No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 has made significant changes in how all students are assessed. Because scores on state and district tests have important implications for students, parents, and school personnel, teachers and students should approach testing with…

The author of this essay suggests that, Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), reliance solely on numerical measures, principally math and reading scores, to evaluate performance has corrupted schooling. Educators responding to the need to devote more time to math and reading has led to reductions in the time spent on social studies, science, art,…

"Policy Perspectives" presents visiting authors' own views and/or research on issues relevant to schools and communities nationwide. The idea that reading skill is largely a set of general-purpose maneuvers that can be applied to any and all texts is one of the main barriers to our children's overall low achievement in reading, argues…

This article discusses one of the best defenses against a violent threat in schools -- practicing emergency and lockdown drills. In some buildings, classroom doors lack locks and exterior doors are old. Other buildings have public announcement systems that do not work well throughout a school building, or that lack speakers in restrooms. Still…

Since the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the time spent talking about, preparing for, and taking tests has increased exponentially in schools. The authors contend that all this testing has done little to increase achievement or close achievement gaps, but has had unintended negative consequences. "The tests," they write,…

The phrase "no child left behind" has become a familiar expression in American education circles and in popular culture. The sentiment implied by these four words is noble. However, the effects of the top-down implementation of the high-stakes testing provisions of the law have been anything but salutary for public school children,…

High school teacher Megan Behrent reflects on the impact of Obama's election on the students in her high school classroom. Obliged to temper her students' joyful exuberance on the morning of November 5, 2008, Behrent found that the election fervor highlighted for her the ways that schooling under NCLB has constrained both educators and students,…

West outlines the scientific method as a proven problem-solving method for young children across the curriculum and in all areas of life and learning. She emphasizes that doing, thinking, and talking with peers when problem solving are as important as writing conclusions. The article walks readers through a second grade class's experiment in…

This article addresses the application of the assessment triangle developed by the National Research Council (Pellegrino, Chudowsky, & Glaser, 2001), most specifically the cognition vertex of that triangle, to the unique learning characteristics of students with significant cognitive disabilities in developing and demonstrating academic…

This action research project was designed to maximize learning for all students by addressing different learning styles and implementing various strategies. The students in the targeted school exhibited difficulty in experiencing academic success while exposed to conventional teaching strategies. The two target schools consisted of an intermediate…

Every spring, education-related newspaper and magazine stories raise the alarm that schools are "teaching to the test." Scores of articles and editorials paint a disheartening picture of frustrated teachers forced to abandon good instructional practices for a relentless stream of worksheets based on boring, repetitive test-preparation…

In the winter and spring of 2007-08, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) expanded its ongoing research on the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) by conducting case studies of six schools in Rhode Island to learn more about the influence of NCLB and related state accountability policies on curriculum, instruction, and student…

The federal journey into public education has followed a long and winding road. Most educators know that the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is simply the latest version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which dates all the way back to 1965. In the years since its initial passage, the ESEA road has taken a number of…

A teacher of Limited English Proficient elementary students in California describes how she put her students through daily timed read-aloud drills to boost their scores on a benchmark assessment of reading rate that her school district required. Corn briefly reviews the rationale behind measuring reading rate as an indicator of fluency. The reason…

This article argues that, with all of its language about reaching "100% proficiency for all students in twelve years" as an "ambitious, but achievable" goal, the current federal administration seems to be on the side of the children in its No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), but further investigation reveals that many of the…