Download or read book What Impact Will NCLB Waivers Have on the Consistency Complexity and Transparency of State Accountability Systems written by Wayne Riddle and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In September 2011, the Obama Administration initiated a program to grant states waivers of several significant requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This initiative grew out of a concern that "in its implementation, No Child Left Behind had some serious flaws that are hurting our children instead of helping them," as President Obama noted in a speech announcing the waivers (The White House, 2011). The provisions that can be waived include several requirements of NCLB intended to hold schools accountable for raising student achievement. To receive NCLB waivers, states must apply to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and must meet various requirements not currently in federal law. These new requirements relate to adopting college- and career-ready standards and assessments, developing differentiated accountability systems, implementing teacher and principal evaluation systems that factor in growth in student achievement, and reducing administrative burden. This report compares the new accountability provisions in the waiver states with those in the NCLB statute. Examples from select waiver states are included to illustrate how these new provisions will work within some specific statewide accountability systems. The report focuses on the complexity, transparency, and consistency across states of the new accountability systems in the waiver states, both on their own terms and in comparison with the NCLB statutory requirements. (Contains 4 footnotes.).
Download or read book Evolutionary Computing and Artificial Intelligence written by Fernando Koch and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-03-13 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Festschrift volume is published in honor of Takao Terano on the occasion of his retirement. Takao Terano is a leading expert in the areas of agent-based modelling, knowledge systems, evolutionary computation, and service science.The contributions in this volume reflect the breadth and impact of his work. The volume contains 12 full papers related to Takao Terano’s research. They deal with various aspects of artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems, collaborative and social computing, social networks, ubiquitous computing.
Download or read book The Pitfalls of Reform written by John Tanner and published by R&L Education. This book was released on 2013-12-16 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The systems that make up the accountability package in education: standards, assessments, and the quality determination for a school, have each entered the educational field under the explicit assumption by their creators that they would drive educator behavior in a positive way. But what if that isn’t actually the case? What if each of the components was actually designed for another purpose entirely and now is tasked with a role that was never considered in its design? If that is the case those who put the systems in place risk expecting a result that the system was never designed to produce. That is exactly where we find ourselves today. In education the misalignment between what the systems were designed to do and the intent of those who selected them is masked in the sheer complexity of the educational exercise. What this book does so marvelously is unravel that complexity and present the contradictions in a clear, coherent manner. Understanding these contradictions is the first step towards actual improvement.
Download or read book Major Accountability Themes of Second Round State Applications for NCLB Waivers written by Wayne Riddle and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report analyzes the NCLB waiver applications submitted in the second round by 26 states and Washington, D.C. to the U.S. Department of Education in February 2012. Among the findings in the report is that, like the first round of applications, these states are proposing new accountability systems that will lead to greater complexity both within states and between states, but at the same time will be more integrated with states' own existing accountability systems. Also, nearly all the state applications propose annual achievement targets and performance levels that are more nuanced than what is currently in place under NCLB. At the same time, 19 of the 27 applications analyzed will use a combined subgroup for accountability decisions, rather than all of the student subgroups mandated under NCLB. None of the states analyzed will continue to require school choice and SES in schools identified for improvement, as is currently mandated. (Contains 1 footnote.).
Download or read book Accountability Issues to Watch Under NCLB Waivers written by Nancy Kober and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In September 2011, the Obama Administration invited states to apply for waivers of key requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The Administration's waiver initiative offers states the flexibility to move away from the flawed provisions of NCLB, including several significant requirements intended to hold schools accountable for raising student achievement. The waivers also give states a chance to design new accountability systems that incorporate the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and common assessments being developed with the leadership and cooperation of many states. As of September 1, 2012, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) had approved waiver applications from 33 states and D.C. These waivers will remain in effect through 2013-14, and states will have to request an extension for future years. This report highlights issues to watch over the next few years as states with waivers implement new accountability systems. For each of the issues discussed in this report, the authors have tried to consider the implications for public education systems, teachers, and students. The discussion must be speculative because the new systems are just getting underway, and key details have yet to be determined in some states.
Download or read book A Step Forward Or a Step Back written by Daria Hall and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2002, No Child Left Behind ushered in sweeping changes in school accountability. Diverging from the federal government's long history of leaving this matter largely to the states, a Congress broadly dissatisfied with the slow pace of educational improvement stepped in with a new framework designed to set schools on a path to getting all students to "grade level" by 2014. Virtually all observers--including critics of the law--applaud the attention NCLB focused on improving the achievement of students who had, for far too long, been poorly served by schools. Over time, however, even the law's staunchest supporters began noting its limitations and negative effects. These flaws could and should have been fixed through a reauthorization. But despite several attempts, Congress couldn't agree on a new version of the law. Frustrated with the legislative gridlock and worried about the damage an outmoded law could do, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan granted waivers from key accountability provisions of NCLB to states willing to undertake certain reforms. The waivers have sparked heated debate. But so far, there's been more heat than light. This is the second phase of the author's ongoing analysis aimed at shedding more light on the waivers. Her analysis compares the waivers with critical elements of a good accountability system and asks: What is the quality of the plans put forward by the states and approved by the U.S. Department of Education? When given an opportunity, what kind of choices did states make? Did their plans preserve a focus on underserved students, while also mitigating the most widely acknowledged problems with NCLB? She hopes that the questions raised in this report--which can be asked and answered in every state granted a waiver--will spark conversation and action among all who believe that, done right, accountability is an important tool in the effort to raise achievement and close gaps. This paper presents five questions that educators, advocates, and policymakers in every waiver state ought to ask about expectations in the accountability system for which their state has been approved. (Contains 10 notes.).
Download or read book Do Schools Respond to Pressure written by Vivian C. Wong and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last decade, accountability reform has been at the forefront of the domestic policy agenda. Although the Obama Administration was critical of some elements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), its policies endorsed high-stakes testing and expanded the scope of the stakes. With the Race to the Top and an NCLB waiver process, the administration doubled down on using student test results for high stakes purposes, making not only schools but also teachers and principals accountable for student achievement growth. This study addresses methodological challenges for evaluating NCLB by introducing a new quantitative measure for describing states' accountability systems. To create the implementation measure of states' accountability policies from 2003 to 2011, the authors combine a dataset they created of states' accountability policies with information from several federal data sources, including the NAEP and the Common Core of Data (CCD). Their implementation measure is unique in that it depends only on state policies, but not on population characteristics of schools and students within states. The measure allows them to describe quantitatively states' implementation of accountability policies during the NCLB pre-waiver period, to assess how these policies changed over time, and to examine how schools responded to state accountability pressures. The study employs a research design called simulated instrumental variables, which has not been used to study educational reforms but is well suited to uncover links between policy implementation and outcomes. In the preliminary analyses, they used the population of Pennsylvania schools in 2007-2008 to serve as the fixed sample that was "fed" through the AYP calculator. They authors chose Pennsylvania schools because the state department of education provided them with sufficient input information needed for their calculator and included schools with enough variation that reflect changes in state policies across time. Overall it was found that a 1% increase in stringency of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) policy led to a 0.07% increase in schools' failure rates. Tables and figures are appended.
Download or read book Holding NCLB Accountable written by Gail L. Sunderman and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By mandating high standards for all students, the No Child Left Behind Act has promised to close the achievement gap and bring all students up to proficient levels by 2014. The challenge is in connecting the goals of NCLB legislation with the realities of change in the classroom.
Download or read book Differentiated Accountability and Education Production written by Steven W. Hemelt and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education granted states the opportunity to apply for waivers from the core requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In exchange, states implemented systems of differentiated accountability in which they identified and intervened in their lowest-performing schools ("Priority" schools) and schools with the largest achievement gaps between subgroups of students ("Focus" schools). We use administrative data from Michigan in a series of regression-discontinuity analyses to study the effects of these reforms on schools and students. Overall, we find that neither reform had appreciable impacts on various measures of school staffing, student composition, or academic achievement. We find some evidence that the Focus designation led to small, short-run reductions in the within-school math achievement gap - but that these reductions were driven by stagnant performance of lower-achieving students alongside declines in the performance of their higher-achieving peers. These findings serve as a cautionary tale for the capacity of the accountability provisions embedded in the recent reauthorization of NCLB, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), to meaningfully improve student and school outcomes.
Download or read book Incentives and Test Based Accountability in Education written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-11-18 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years there have been increasing efforts to use accountability systems based on large-scale tests of students as a mechanism for improving student achievement. The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a prominent example of such an effort, but it is only the continuation of a steady trend toward greater test-based accountability in education that has been going on for decades. Over time, such accountability systems included ever-stronger incentives to motivate school administrators, teachers, and students to perform better. Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education reviews and synthesizes relevant research from economics, psychology, education, and related fields about how incentives work in educational accountability systems. The book helps identify circumstances in which test-based incentives may have a positive or a negative impact on student learning and offers recommendations for how to improve current test-based accountability policies. The most important directions for further research are also highlighted. For the first time, research and theory on incentives from the fields of economics, psychology, and educational measurement have all been pulled together and synthesized. Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education will inform people about the motivation of educators and students and inform policy discussions about NCLB and state accountability systems. Education researchers, K-12 school administrators and teachers, as well as graduate students studying education policy and educational measurement will use this book to learn more about the motivation of educators and students. Education policy makers at all levels of government will rely on this book to inform policy discussions about NCLB and state accountability systems.
Download or read book The Achievement Consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act Working Paper written by Thomas S. Dee and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has compelled states to design school accountability systems based on annual student assessments. The effect of this Federal legislation on the distribution of student achievement is a highly controversial but centrally important question. This study presents evidence on whether NCLB has influenced student achievement based on an analysis of state-level panel data on student test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This study identifies the impact of NCLB by relying on comparisons of the test-score changes across states that already had school accountability policies in place prior to NCLB and those that did not. Results indicate that NCLB generated statistically significant increases in the average math performance of 4th graders (effect size = 0.22 by 2007) as well as improvements at the lower and top percentiles. However, the authors do not find consistent evidence that NCLB generated similarly broad improvements in reading achievement or achievement among 8th graders. (Contains 11 tables and 6 footnotes.) [This paper was presented at the "NCLB: Emerging Findings Research Conference" at the Urban Institute, Washington, D.C. on August 12, 2009.].
Download or read book No Child Left Behind Act written by United States. Government Accountability Office and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Test Based Educational Accountability in the Era of No Child Left Behind CSE Report 651 written by Robert L. Linn and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ever-increasing reliance on student performance on tests as a way of holding schools and educators accountable is discussed. Comparisons are made between state accountability requirements and the accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. The resulting mixed messages being given by the two systems are discussed. Features of NCLB accountability and state accountability systems that contribute to the identification of a school as meeting goals according to NCLB but failing to do so according to the state accountability system, or vise versa, are discussed. These include the multiple hurdles of NCLB, the comparison of performance against a fixed target rather than changes in achievement, and the definition of performance goals. Some suggestions are provided for improving the NCLB accountability system.
Download or read book State and Local Implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act Volume IX written by James Taylor and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)" is designed to achieve an ambitious goal: All children will be proficient in reading and mathematics by the 2013-14 school year. A key strategy for achieving this goal is accountability. Based on findings from two federally funded studies--the Study of State Implementation of Accountability and Teacher Quality Under "NCLB" (SSI-"NCLB") and the National Longitudinal Study of "NCLB" (NLS-"NCLB")--this report describes the progress that states, districts, and schools have made in implementing the accountability provisions of "NCLB" through 2006-07. Data were collected in state-level interviews; surveys of a nationally representative sample of district officials, principals, and teachers; surveys of parents in eight school districts; and surveys of supplemental educational service providers in 16 districts in 2004-05 and in 2006-07. This report is based on data collected in 2004-05 and 2006-07, and updates findings from the Interim report that were based on data collected in 2004-05. States used the flexibility provided by "NCLB" to establish accountability systems that varied in terms of the rigor of their academic standards, the level at which they set proficiency, the type of assessments they use, and the manner in which they calculated Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and set their annual proficiency targets. As a result of these differences as well as differences in student achievement, there was a large variation across states in the percentage of schools missing AYP and being identified for improvement. Appendices include: (1) Description of NLS-"NCLB" and SSI-"NCLB" Methodologies; (2) State Policy Tables; (3) Supplemental Exhibits; and (4) Standard Error Exhibits. (Contains 127 footnotes and 140 exhibits.) [This report was prepared for the Policy and Program Studies Service, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, U.S. Department of Education.].
Download or read book Statewide Educational Accountability Systems Under the NCLB Act written by William J. Erpenbach and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The conclusion of the 2010-11 school year will mark nine plus years since enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Throughout this period, numerous states--sometimes almost every one--have annually sought to amend the educational accountability systems they first developed as "workbooks" in 2002-03, consistent with the law's requirements and goals to improve teaching and student achievement. In this paper, covering the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, the number of states continuing to submit amendment requests and the number of substantive amendments proposed remains surprising so long after NCLB's enactment. The highest number of states (49 and the District of Columbia) and greatest number of proposed amendments (over 275) occurred in 2008. In 2009, at least 36 states and the District of Columbia submitted approximately 90 substantive requests, and at least 31 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico submitted approximately 95 substantive, proposed amendments in 2010. Appended are: (1) List of acronyms used in this paper; (2) Timeline of significant events related to the implementation of NCLB since its enactment in January 2002; (3) Selected information related to waiver provisions under sec. 9401 of the law; and (4) Table of substantive changes in ED policy with respect to decisions regarding states' amendment requests since 2002. References and other resource materials are included. (Contains 25 footnotes.).
Download or read book Standards Based Accountability Under No Child Left Behind written by Laura S. Hamilton and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2001-2002, standards-based accountability (SBA) provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) have shaped the work of public school teachers and administrators in the United States. NCLB requires each state to develop content and achievement standards in several subjects, administer tests to measure students' progress toward these standards, develop targets for performance on these tests, and impose a series of interventions on schools and districts that do not meet the targets. Many states had such systems in place before NCLB took effect, but, since 2001-2002, every state i.
Download or read book The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Student Achievement written by Thomas Sean Dee and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act compelled states to design school-accountability systems based on annual student assessments. The effect of this Federal legislation on the distribution of student achievement is a highly controversial but centrally important question. This study presents evidence on whether NCLB has influenced student achievement based on an analysis of state-level panel data on student test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The impact of NCLB is identified using a comparative interrupted time series analysis that relies on comparisons of the test-score changes across states that already had school-accountability policies in place prior to NCLB and those that did not. Our results indicate that NCLB generated statistically significant increases in the average math performance of 4th graders (effect size = 0.22 by 2007) as well as improvements at the lower and top percentiles. There is also evidence of improvements in 8th grade math achievement, particularly among traditionally low-achieving groups and at the lower percentiles. However, we find no evidence that NCLB increased reading achievement in either 4th or 8th grade.
