[EDLING:192] What caused increases in test scores after NCLB?

[Francis M Hult]

Via lgpolicy...

> * What caused increases in test scores after No Child Left Behind?*
> 
> * Web Posted: 06/06/2007 01:04 AM CDT*
> 
> *Jenny Lacoste-Caputo
> Express-News Staff Writer*
> 
> Math and reading scores have increased since No Child Left Behind went into
> effect in 2002, and the achievement gap between white and minority students
> and low-income children and their wealthier peers is shrinking, according to
> the first comprehensive study of student achievement in 50 states since the
> landmark public school overhaul became law. The Center on Education Policy,
> an independent Washington, D.C.-based think tank that studies how reforms
> impact public schools, released the study Tuesday. The study is unique
> because it includes data from all 50 states and tracks trends in student
> achievement, both before and after the law went into effect.
> 
> Texas' gains were hardly dramatic, but still mostly positive. Students
> showed gains in math in all grade levels except third, which held steady.
> Reading scores were up in some grades and down in others. Jack Jennings, the
> center's president, said the study is not concrete proof that NCLB is making
> a positive impact on schools, though the law certainly hasn't hurt student
> performance, as some critics have argued. "Nobody, from the president on
> down, should stand up and say NCLB is a smashing success or a smashing
> failure," Jennings said. Analysts for the center said many states were
> implementing their own reforms at the same time the federal accountability
> system went into effect and that it's impossible to determine what prompted
> the gains in test scores.
> 
> Still, with the 5-year-old law up for reauthorization by Congress this year,
> its supporters were eager to claim victory. "I'm greatly encouraged by the
> findings of the Center for Education Policy's report. This study confirms
> that No Child Left Behind has struck a chord of success with our nation's
> schools and students," U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said
> in a statement distributed by the Education Department. The study looked at
> test scores from 1999 to 2006, but only in states where testing has not
> changed during that time frame. Because Texas switched from the Texas
> Assessment of Academic Skills to the more rigorous Texas Assessment of
> Knowledge and Skills during those years, the study only used two years of
> Texas data, from 2005 and 2006.
> 
> Texas' accountability system is decades old and was the blueprint for No
> Child Left Behind.
> 
> Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, said
> Texas might not post the dramatic gains of a state that had no
> accountability program before the federal law."Texas has implemented so many
> education reforms, I don't think you can point to one thing as the trigger
> for the increase. I think they've all worked together," she said. "I know in
> the first years of the accountability program, that's when we saw our
> biggest gains. When it becomes standard operating procedure, the gains start
> to become more incremental, but at least the trend is still moving forward."
> 
> 
> No Child Left Behind requires schools to make yearly progress not just in
> their overall population, but in smaller groups based on race, ethnicity,
> socio-economic status, learning disabilities and English-language ability.
> 
> Schools also can fail the federal standard if their graduation or attendance
> rates are too low or if less than 95 percent of students — in the overall
> population or in the smaller groups — are tested. The performance of a
> handful of students can sink an entire school.
> 
> Alicia Thomas, associate superintendent for instruction at North East
> Independent School District, said the law has changed the way schools are
> teaching kids in Texas. Though Texas already looked at student performance
> by subgroups, concentrating on race and income, the state did not break out
> the scores of special education students and English language learners. And
> though Thomas thinks NCLB needs an overhaul, she firmly believes it has had
> a positive effect for students.
> 
> "That shining a light on those two student groups has caused us to make
> instructional changes for those students," Thomas said. "When we break out
> our special ed data, we see those students are doing extremely well."
> 
> ------------------------------
> *jcaputo at express-news.net *
> 
>  ------------------------------
> Online at:
> http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA060607.1B.nclb.study.3a42a94.html