This study finds that nearly every school in the Great Lakes states is threatened to fail the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements mandated by the federal "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) Act. NCLB holds schools and districts accountable for student achievement on state standardized tests and schools that do not make AYP face…

This appendix describes the analytical procedures used to project the status of schools in the Great Lakes state toward meeting AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) requirements from 2005 to 2014. To "make AYP," the school as a whole and each numerically significant subgroup must meet "Annual Measurable Objectives" (annual…

While some proponents of testing rest their hopes for stronger learning on the expectation that tests alone will motivate students to work harder, most posit that better learning will result primarily from better teaching--due to curriculum changes, greater attention to student needs, stronger teacher motivation, or focused investments in…

This paper will review some of the issues in school counseling outcome research and how these issues relate to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Legislation. Some basic information related to the NCLB mandates will be reviewed in terms of how they impact the school counseling profession and counselor accountability. Types of research will be…

This paper reviews 15 research studies that: (1) examined effects of particular accommodations or groups of accommodations on performance: and (2) employed experimental and quasi-experimental research designs that allowed examination of the effect of the accommodation(s) on English Language Learners (ELLs) and non-ELLs. Studies looked at one or…

The No Child Left Behind Act has brought great attention to the high school graduation rate as one of the mandatory accountability measures for public school systems. However, there is no consensus on how to calculate the high school graduation rate given the lack of longitudinal databases that track individual students. This study reviews…

Developmental (vertical) scales are often constructed for subject areas such as reading and mathematics that are taught continuously in elementary schools. In other subjects such as science, and across a wider grade span, such scales are hard to justify. For tracking student progress and school accountability (including the No Child Left Behind…

Imagine administering an online standardized test to an entire class of 11th-grade students when, halfway through the exam, the server holding the test hits a snag and throws everyone offline. Imagine another scenario in which an elementary school has very few computers so teachers must bus their students to the local high school for a timed test.…

The author believes that some statements about education are as silly as waving to Ray Charles or another person who is blind. In particular, some of the statements about closing the achievement gap between students with disabilities and those without disabilities are extremely so. Educators need to demand that statements about education make…

While there are many factors that affect the quality of teacher education programs, one specific related factor, a culture of accountability, will be addressed in this reflection of Haberman's work. A systematic review of faculty performance with specific rubrics and increasing expectation based on earned faculty rank is a necessary step in…

As almost everyone knows by now, the central aim of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law is to make every public-school student proficient in reading and math by the year 2014. It is a laudable goal, as the overwhelmingly bipartisan congressional support for the legislation in 2001 proved. The law's drafters even had the foresight to know that…

The "State ESEA ['Elementary and Secondary Education Act'] Title I Participation Summary Report for 2003-04" summarizes the participation data for the Title I, Part A (Title I), Grants to Local Education Agencies (LEAs) program. This program provides federal funds to assist eligible school districts and schools in supporting…

Secondary vocational-technical education programs in Mississippi are faced with many challenges resulting from sweeping educational reforms at the national and state levels. Schools and teachers are increasingly being held accountable for providing true learning activities to every student in the classroom. This accountability is measured through…

As federal mandates have increased in recent years, public schools have been hampered by the lack of resources to implement them. The forthcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides an opportunity to move away from the shortcomings of its present version, the No Child Left Behind Act. This article presents…

The relationships between ratings on the Idaho Alternate Assessment (IAA) for 116 students with significant disabilities and corresponding ratings for the same students on two norm-referenced teacher rating scales were examined to gain evidence about the validity of resulting IAA scores. To contextualize these findings, another group of 54…