The U.S. Department of Education introduced the four-year adjusted cohort high school graduation rate formula in 2008 to usher high school graduation in as a high-stakes accountability metric. This policy sought to address disparate graduation rates by student race but did not attend to systemic reasons why minoritized students had lower…

High school graduation rates have increased dramatically in the past two decades. Some skepticism has arisen, however, because of the confluence of the graduation rise and the starts of high-stakes accountability for graduation rates with "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB). In this study we provide some of the first evidence about the role of…

In almost any conversation about accountability for private schools, accountability for public schools is assumed. This is a dangerous myth. By assuming that the edifice that states and the federal government have created over the past several decades actually holds schools accountable, school choice advocates immediately find themselves in an…

Education has undergone a sweeping renovation throughout the last several decades as part of the school accountability movement aimed to increase student success. High school graduation rates are the highest they have been in decades. School accountability measures continue to be implemented and modified with a goal of increasing student success…

On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, legislation to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). ESSA replaces the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the previous version of ESEA, and also supersedes the ESEA waivers created by the U.S. Department of Education to provide states…

We use a difference-in-differences analytic approach to estimate postsecondary consequences from Maine's mandate that all public school juniors take the SAT®. We find that, overall, the policy increased 4-year college-going rates by 2- to 3-percentage points and that 4-year college-going rates among induced students increased by 10-percentage…

In conjunction with the White House Next Gen High School Summit on November 10, a new report finds that the number of high school dropouts decreased from 1 million in 2008 to approximately 750,000 in 2012. The report, released by the Alliance for Excellent Education, America's Promise Alliance, Civic Enterprises, and Everyone Graduates Center,…

This report highlights states' school accountability systems, with an eye on the states that include a measure of student growth in their accountability system. For each state, the report includes: (1) Proficiency measures; (2) Growth measures; and (3) Additional measures such as graduation and dropout rates. The report also provides an overview…

Absent any federal requirement to monitor the performance of student subgroups, a significant number of states have implemented accountability systems that either ignore the performance of these students or provide only minimal oversight. As Congress moves forward with reauthorizing ESEA, it must codify the 2008 high school graduation rate…

When it comes to state education accountability systems, times are changing fast. This is clearer than ever with the advent of not only waivers from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) but also the multitude of state accountability index systems and "A through F" school-grading systems rolling out across the country. The multiple measures of…

As states develop their accountability and improvement systems under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) they can choose high-leverage measures of school progress that, when combined with effective policies, hold promise for supporting success for the youth most marginalized by the education system. This paper suggests that to promote equity and…

States are responsible for setting the minimum number of students needed to form a student subgroup for federal reporting and accountability purposes. This required student subgroup size is commonly referred to as the state-set "n-size." States should set this number as low as possible to maximize the number of student subgroups created.…

This study investigated the relationship of statewide high school graduation rates of student ethnic groups from 2002 to 2006 to the four policy pillars of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001: Accountability for Results; Expanded Flexibility and Local Control; Expanded Options for Parents, Strengthening Teacher Quality. The quantitative,…

The "Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006" ("Perkins IV") requires states to report to the Department of Education each year on their progress in achieving their adjusted performance levels--negotiated with and approved by the Department--on the core indicators of performance (core indicators) described in…

This report provides a brief overview of key component's of Austin Independent School District's federal Title I, Part A program for 2015-2016, including funding, student and teacher demographics, student academic performance, and accountability.