This study examined media coverage of testing in schools in two newspapers--the "New York Times" and "Education Week"--over the 20-year period from 1996 to 2015. Using a conceptual framework informed by framing theory and a quantitative text analysis technique called structural topic modeling on a dataset of over 8,000…

Grounded in the sense-making literature, this study explores the discourse around and sentiment toward the newly passed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) as discussed on the social media platform Twitter. The study explores the characteristics of and connections between users, the content of posts, and the sentiment toward ESSA. Data consisted of…

Utilizing data from an original survey of public school parents, I examine the depth and distribution of parents' knowledge of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). A close exploration of parents' NCLB knowledge, policy-based experiences, and policy evaluations suggests that a superficial policy understanding may contribute to low uptake of policy-related…

School systems have access to more data than ever before, but most teachers and school leaders lack the skills to use the data for student and school improvement. Current attempts to use data have lacked depth and have been more focused on accountability and meeting state and federal requirements than on systematically investigating the factors…

Social studies teachers live with the unintended consequences of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act every day. They understand that the law has created flawed incentives for states and school districts to narrow their curricula to English and math. This fundamentally misguided practice leaves out core disciplines that are essential to a…

With the signing of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, much emphasis has been placed on the accountability of schools and school districts to ensure higher academic achievement of all students. The achievement gap remains among African American male students in urban school districts. This purposed quantitative study explored the relationship…

This article explores teachers' experiences under high-stakes accountability and shows how the narrowing of curriculum depleted teachers' intrinsic work rewards. The article analyzes data from an ethnographic study of teachers' work in two high-poverty urban public schools. The study shows that as instructional mandates emphasized a narrowed…

Neoliberalism has brought fundamental changes to the way schools of education prepare professional educators; among them is the pressure for schools of education to produce fast-track teacher preparation programs that bypass traditional requirements. Due to the privatization of public education, a new market has emerged to train educators and…

This paper reports on an ethnographic study of administrators, faculty, parents and community members in one remote Michigan school district. The purpose of the study is to describe and explain how Michigan's educational reform perspective--arguably similar to the education reform perspectives of many states--encountered the educational…

Currently, American schooling, driven by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and standardized tests, emphasizes development of intelligence. Because of this, teachers must heavily emphasize acquisition of foundational information (facts) in lectures, assessments, and of course, time-consuming test preparation, at the expense of intellect, that…

California is in the midst of sweeping education changes. The state is rolling out the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and a new system of assessments. Voters approved a temporary statewide tax increase that will provide additional funding to schools after years of spending cuts. The Legislature adopted a new system for funding schools (the…

In this article, examples excerpted from research studies conducted in Houston, Texas, the fourth largest city in the United States, are used to demonstrate how the discretionary classroom space where teachers and students actively live curriculum--guided, though, not controlled, by official documents and administrative oversight--has become…

This article summarizes the results of a study involving 42 educational diagnosticians from North Texas. The study was conducted to determine diagnosticians' perceived understanding of early literacy development and their ability to effectively choose and interpret assessments of phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and reading fluency. The…

Under the No Child Left Behind Act schools that fail to make progress in having students reach proficiency are designated in "need of improvement." If this continues, schools that receive federal Title I funds are required to offer their low income students supplemental educational services (SES) such as tutoring outside of school time.…

Backers of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law based their support on the belief that teachers and administrators primarily were responsible for low levels of achievement by America's poor. This one-sided view about who is responsible for the nation's achievement gap is both inadequate and unsupported by the evidence. The author argues that harsh…