Over the last two decades, federal and state policy makers have launched a number of ambitious, large-scale education reform initiatives--No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, the Common Core State Standards, and others--only to see them sputter and fail. In 2017, the authors convened a number of leading scholars to explore why those initiatives…

"The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" (NCLB) made schools accountable for student performance through standardized testing. Some claim high-stakes testing is an inexpensive vehicle through which to raise educational standards, however, these studies typically count only the administrative costs of test development, test delivery, and…

In 2009, the Obama Administration created a $4.3 billion dollar grant competition for states called "Race to the Top" (RttT). The money, earmarked from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was to be distributed by the Department of Education to states who were making efforts to adhere to precirculated reforms supported by…

In 2008, educational leaders from the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) assigned a group of turnaround specialists to work in four failing public schools in a large, urban school district in Phoenix, Arizona in hopes of improving those schools. The utilization of turnaround specialists in failing schools was Arizona's method of enacting…

This article examines the case of the Winston Society, a short-lived wikispace created by a high school English teacher to foster collaborative knowledge-making and social activism among educators. Through an examination of the wiki, questionnaires, and a focal group interview, this paper describes an examination of reasons the "Winston…

The Title I public school transfer option has sparked many debates among educators. Although there are numerous studies that reveal mobility can hurt student performance, the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law urges parents to move their children out of low performing Title I schools. Some school officials may not realize the implications the…

In this article, the author observes how a combination of interrelated elements are currently changing the face of the civilizing traditions of the U.S. education and forming a new culture of childhood. These include: (1) the standardization of education; (2) the dissolution of traditional spontaneous play; and (3) the growing specter of poverty…

This study finds that nearly every school in the Great Lakes states is threatened to fail the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements mandated by the federal "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) Act. NCLB holds schools and districts accountable for student achievement on state standardized tests and schools that do not make AYP face…