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Center on Education Policy:
TEST-DRIVEN accountability is now the norm in public schools, a result of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which is the culmination of 15 years of standards-based reform.
Many state and local officials believe that this reliance on tests is too narrow a measure of educational achievement, but NCLB has directed greater attention to lowachieving students and intensified efforts to improve persistently low-performing schools.
Scores on state tests in reading and mathematics that are used for NCLB purposes are going up, according to nearly three fourths of the states and school disScores on state tests in reading and mat hemat ics that are used for NCLB purposes are going up, according to nearly three-fourths of the states and school districts, and the achievement gaps on these same tests are generally nar rowin g or staying the same.
States and districts mostly credit their own policies as important in attaining these results, although they acknowledge that the "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) requirements of NCLB have also contributed.
The most common improvements are greater alignment of curriculum and instruction with standards and assessments, more use of test data to modify instruction, use of research to inform decisions about improvement strategies, improvement in the quality and quantity of professional development for teachers, and the provision of more intensive instruction to low-achieving students.
Similarly, officials don't see the merit in administering an English/language arts test to students who speak little or no English.
About 10% of all schools have been labeled as "in need of improvement" for not making AYP, though these are not always the same schools every year.
Posted on November 9, 2006 07:42 PM
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