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…

When researching school options, parents may want to look for schools with high-growth scores which, according to research, may be indicators of other characteristics such as programming, leadership, culture, and size. This quick guide offers parents tips on how to identify high-growth schools and what to ask when evaluating school options. An…

Alarmed by the possibility of social studies being overlooked in this context of new national disciplinary standards, National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools convened a meeting of 15 national organizations representing civics, economics, geography, and history, to begin a conversation about…

Those who work in second- and foreign-language testing often find Koretz's concern for validity inferences under high-stakes (VIHS) conditions both welcome and familiar. While the focus of the article is more narrowly on the potential for two instructional responses to test-based accountability, "reallocation" and "coaching,"…

In this article, I critique the labels and terms used to frame practices aimed at closing the achievement gap. I examine how an unacknowledged "achievement gap Discourse" has emerged from the language that informs practices and policies of contemporary school reform. I use Gee's uppercase "Discourse" and a cultural analytic…

Background: Local control has historically been a prominent principle in education policymaking and governance. Culminating with the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), however, the politics of education have been nationalized to an unprecedented degree, and local control has all but disappeared as a principle framing education policymaking.…

Teacher accountability has gained attention since the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), enacted in 2002 by then President George W. Bush. Research shows a strong correlation between effective teacher instruction and student achievement, yet the area of feedback to teachers on…

Even though 34 states and the District of Columbia have No Child Left Behind Act waivers in hand, many of them are still negotiating with the U.S. Department of Education over their teacher evaluation systems--a crucial component if they want to keep their newfound flexibility. More than six months after waiver recipients turned in their…

This paper utilizes the work of Elise Boulding as a theoretical framework for analyzing the potentials and shortcomings of the US educational policy, "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" (NCLB). The interrelated concepts of respect, solitude, imagination, and partnerships from Boulding's scholarship are detailed. NCLB is summarized along…

Dual enrollment is a federally funded program that offers high school students the opportunity to earn both high school and postsecondary credits for the same course. While the phenomenon of concurrent enrollment in postsecondary and college educational programs is not new, political support and public funding has drawn focus to the policies of…

Across the globe, educational tests are being used at a rapidly increasing rate. More recently, educational tests are being used to inform educational policy and for holding educators accountable for student learning. One reason educational assessments are used for these important purposes is that they are considered to provide reliable and…

Too often, researchers get a bad name for engaging in inquiry that is inaccessible to the practitioner and policy communities who could most benefit from it. Although speaking to others in the scholarly community is important, researchers must also be able to translate their results into more accessible language for multiple audiences. This…

This analysis examines Arizona's English fluency evaluation initiative, which aims to address the fluency standards for teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs) set forth in the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. The authors deploy a sociolinguistic framework to consider what components of teachers' language are being evaluated by the policy,…

This article illustrates the challenges of teaching curriculum within the guidelines of No Child Left Behind. Nine school teachers write and speak about their experiences, what influences their curriculum choices, and how they attempt to incorporate social studies in the elementary classroom. The teachers completed a background survey, wrote about…

The key to improving education is the classroom teacher. Students must have skillful, highly effective teachers who have consistent access to on going professional development. NCLB offers guidelines for effective professional development. States interpret these guidelines and add their own varied legislative requirements. The current result is an…