Background/Context: A challenge for teachers who support teaching for and about democracy is doing so while being pressed into directives rooted in corporatocracy, a political manifestation of neoliberalism. The accountability movement today, particularly No Child Left Behind, is rooted in much more firmly in corporatocracy than democracy.…

This report describes Michigan's school restructuring efforts under the No Child Left Behind Act, and includes findings from case studies of nine schools in four school districts: Detroit Public Schools, Flint Community Schools, Harrison Community Schools, and Willow Run Community Schools. Key findings from the report include: (1) more Michigan…

The research reported in this paper is focused directly on assessing the validity of the "Teaching Knowledge about Reading and Reading Practices" (TKRRP) assessment. Following the recommendations of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (APA/AERA, 1999), the authors see validation as a process of constructing an…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability mechanisms have the potential to derail comprehensive school reform (CSR) implementation. For those pursuing CSR, the question is how to reconcile the implementation of NCLB accountability mandates with ongoing CSR efforts. Drawing from longitudinal data from a national study of CSR, this article explores…

Employing a critical-empirical approach to the study of college access, the author explores the role of policy researchers in seeking educational equity. (Contains 2 tables.)

How developed countries train, recruit and retain their schoolteachers is an area of considerable interest in education today. In this paper we consider how the US is addressing the issue of teacher quality by holding schools and school districts accountable for ensuring that all teachers of core subjects are "highly qualified" by the…

Parental involvement is mentioned more than one hundred times in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). In this article, John Rogers argues that President Bush and former U.S. secretary of education Rod Paige have promoted policy narratives of test accountability, choice, and parental involvement that describe how poor parents can spur educators to…

This comparative case study investigated the teaching practices of secondary English language arts teachers who are reading endorsed versus secondary English language arts teachers who are not reading endorsed. Florida Department of Education mandated that all reading teachers, and strongly encouraged all English language arts teachers be reading…

The Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) Program was established as a demonstration program in 1998 and authorized as a full program in 2002 as part of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). It is one approach to help low-performing K-12 public schools meet state performance standards. CSR emphasizes two major concepts: mandating that school reform…

The literature base on technology professional development for teachers reveals that there is a long way to go in understanding methods of effective practice with respect to the various impacts of these activities on teaching and learning. In the No Child Left Behind era, with programs like Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology, the Fund…

In this article, the author presents the story of Hope--an education student who, despite many successes, was consistently unable to pass the reading portion of a screening test (Praxis I) that is a prerequisite to student teaching in her home state of Georgia. Hope's only trouble was the fact that she was a slow reader due to attention deficit…

The purposes of kindergarten have been changing rapidly in the United States. Kindergarten teachers are facing many new demands; in addition to meeting children's needs across all developmental domains, they must also move their young students toward mastery of a variety of mandated academic skills. This article presents findings from a recent…

Standards are a reality in all academic disciplines, and they can be hard to measure using conventional methods. Technology skills in particular are hard to assess using multiple-choice, paper-based tests. A new generation of online assessments of student technology skills allows students to prove proficiency by completing tasks in their natural…

The Improving Literacy through School Libraries (LSL) program was established under Title I, Part B, Subpart 4 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). The purpose of the program is to improve the literacy skills and academic achievement of students by providing them with increased…

In the spring of 2008, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) continued its ongoing research on the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) by conducting case studies of six schools in Illinois to learn more about the effects of NCLB and related state accountability policies on curriculum, instruction, and student achievement. The schools…