Drawing on three decades of research, this study explores the attitudes of middle school social studies teachers toward professional development in Western Tennessee. Social studies educators frequently navigate the repercussions of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which has led to misguided incentives for states and districts to prioritize…

Parent and community involvement has always been a part of the public education system; from its inception in the early American colonies, local community control was a hallmark of schools. Today, with mandates present in the No Child Left Behind Act, the Race to the Top legislation, and amidst more pressing international comparisons, educators…

There is growing recognition about the importance of studying teacher agency in working with Linguistically Diverse Students (LDSs) after No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Every Student Succeed Act (ESSA) given that the high-stakes testing and accountability system, required by NCLB and largely maintained by ESSA, have exerted negative effects on…

Despite a long history of overrepresentation in segregated settings (Brock, 2018), students with disabilities who require extensive supports are more likely to receive inclusive placements in rural schools. In this paper, we present findings from a narrative literature analysis of inclusive education for students with disabilities in rural schools…

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…

The paper highlights the development of a collaborative formative assessment scoring process in a partnership between an urban university and one of the nation's largest districts. We explore collaborative research through the lens of a single formative assessment rubric derived from the Claims, Evidence, and Reasoning Framework (CER, McNeill…

Under both No Child Left Behind and the Every Student Succeeds Act, school leaders have been mandated to employ data-driven decision-making (DDDM) to diagnose student needs, implement targeted supports, and design school improvements. However, district administrators tasked with developing principals' DDDM capacity face a tough road. The authors…

The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the effect of teacher professional development for working with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and teacher (N = 56) self-efficacy in the general education classroom. A pretest/posttest quasi-experimental research design was implemented. Teachers in one randomly assigned school received…

In this written commentary for the special issue of "Education Policy Analysis Archives" focused on "Redesigning Assessment and Accountability," we call for teacher preparation to embrace a multiple measures philosophy by providing teacher candidates with rich opportunities to engage with data from a variety of sources, beyond…

A wide variety of legislation impacts the jobs of special education teachers in the United States. In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was signed into law, mandating that states develop standards and report outcomes for all students in the key areas of math and reading. In 2004, the reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education…

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, states and districts are responsible for improving the quality and effectiveness of teachers, principals, and other school leaders in increasing student academic achievement. ESSA eliminates the highly qualified teacher (HQT) provision that existed under the No Child Left Behind Act requiring…

The nation's six million students with disabilities have graduation rates nearly 25 percent lower than their general education peers and significantly lower postsecondary enrollment and completion rates. For the last decade and a half, state policy leaders have decried No Child Left Behind's lack of flexibility and one-size-fits-all design for…

This study aimed to understand administrators' data leadership influenced by multiple contexts by analyzing interviews with 24 administrators from three Midwestern districts. Findings highlight ways that the accountability movement narrowed administrators' data leadership. At the same time, the accountability movement was not totalizing, as…

The qualitative study shows how 20 teachers from 4 districts in the same state enacted mandated school-wide writing curricula. Analyses of the observations and interviews revealed that 4 teachers were faithfully following the district-adopted curriculum, 4 rejected it, and 12 teachers adapted the curriculum to meet their students' needs. The…

Math achievement is critically important to the changing global economy. In order to be successful, students must develop a strong foundation in mathematics early in their school careers. But the training elementary teachers receive doesn't always prepare them to teach math well, and math anxiety can keep both students and teachers from reaching…