This paper examines and critiques the accountability movement, high-stakes testing, and their relationship to the achievement gap. Analyzing the issues in the context of Texas, the paper discusses dropout rates that were incorrectly identified and reported, the role of courts and specific court cases in high-stakes testing, ethical considerations,…

This paper takes a critical conceptual look at education policy and practice from the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965 to the present. The paper examines the roots of current United States educational policies, and shows that, in some cases, well-intentioned efforts have had a negative impact on vulnerable populations…

A mainstay in NCLB and the Obama administration education plan is turning around low-performing schools. This study utilized surveys and interviews with school leaders from four turnaround urban high schools in Texas to understand student outcomes before and after school restructuring and reconstitution. Although some organizational changes were…

American public schools are in crisis. Schools across America are grasping to change curriculum, build learning communities, and increase teacher accountability to meet the moving target of the demands placed on them by "No Child Left Behind." As the deadline of 2014 grows nearer with every passing year, accountability standards increase…

Nearly 7,000 students drop out of the nation's public high schools each school day, and 3,000 of them are in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. Altogether, an estimated 1.3 million teenagers in the United States abandon high school each year without earning a diploma. In 1,700 of the nation's high schools, less than 60 percent of…

Public education has long been the subject of public discontent. Historical events such as the Soviet launch of "Sputnik" in 1957, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and repeated media reports that U.S. students were outscored by students in many other countries on international tests each prompted federal and state…

In the state of Texas, whose standardized, high-stakes test-based accountability system became the model for the nation's most comprehensive federal education policy, more than 135,000 youth are lost from the state's high schools every year. Dropout rates are highest for African American and Latino youth, more than 60% for the students we…

Every May, hundreds of thousands of Texas high school seniors don caps and gowns to celebrate an academic rite of passage: high school graduation. Texas' youth face a rapidly changing world, one increasingly dependent upon education as the cornerstone for economic success. Without the skills to succeed in the nation's new economy, students who…

This article draws on research from Texas and Chicago to examine whether highstakes testing enables low-income and racial minority students to acquire cultural capital. While students' performance on state or district tests rose after the implementation of high-stakes testing and accountability policies in Texas and Chicago in the 1990s, several…

Graduation rates are a fundamental indicator of whether or not the nation's public school system is doing what it is intended to do: enroll, engage, and educate youth to be productive members of society. Since almost 90 percent of the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs require some postsecondary education, having a high school diploma and the…

High school dropouts are a growing concern throughout the United States. So much so that the issue has been included in the Goals 2000: Educate America Act and the No Child Left Behind Act. Some students drop out to help support their families, others are starting their own families as teenagers, while others are experiencing academic problems,…

This report contrasts the characteristics of border and nonborder districts in Texas from both a demographic and student achievement standpoint. The information in this report should also inform and strengthen border initiatives, such as those emphasized at the 2006 U.S.-Mexico Border Governors Conference. The study sought to answer three…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) House Prevails in Cutting Education Below Senate Bill and the President's Request: Final FY2005 Education Budget…

This volume includes papers 16-32 in a 32-paper collection: (16) "Mining the Fields of Teacher Education: Preparing Teachers to Teach African American Children in Urban Schools" (Patricia A. Edwards, Gwendolyn T. McMillon, and Clifford T. Bennett); (17) "Mentoring Adolescents At Risk or At Promise" (Tammie M. Causey and Kassie…