One of the affordances of the Every Student Succeeds Act (Every Student Succeeds Act. Pub. L. No. 114-95. 161 Stat. 1177(ESSA), 2015) was that it mandated U.S. districts and schools to take a closer look at the academic performance of English learner students with disabilities (ELSWDs), who constitute 14.3% of all English learners (ELs; National…

With the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" ("NCLB"), signed into law on January 8, 2002, schools nationwide have been challenged to improve student achievement. Several middle and junior high schools in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania were identified as being in need of Corrective Action in 2006 based upon data from the…

No Child Left Behind legislation and high stakes testing have increased the pressure for public schools to ensure academic achievement for all students. Each year, a large number of students do not demonstrate adequate achievement and are retained to repeat the grade level. The large number of students retained is an indication that the system…

The mixed methods correlational study examined the problem that AYP of Pennsylvania gifted middle school students who have met state-mandated proficiency requirements under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has been reliant upon minimum proficiency tests. The purpose of the mixed methods study was to examine the correlations between the current measure…

The nationwide focus on standardized testing, as outlined in the No Child Left Behind Legislation (NCLB, 2003), has prompted many public schools to focus their instruction on preparing students for high-stakes tests in literacy, math and science. While NCLB may be lauded for its intent to ameliorate achievement inequities among subgroups of…

In 2008, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) produced a series of papers documenting promising practices identified throughout the field of K-12 online learning. Since then, we have witnessed a tremendous acceleration of transformative policy and practice driving personalized learning in the K-12 education space. State,…

This paper introduces a generalization of the regression-discontinuity design (RDD). Traditionally, RDD is considered in a two-dimensional framework, with a single assignment variable and cutoff. Treatment effects are measured at a single location along the assignment variable. However, this represents a specialized (and straight-forward)…

The purpose of this paper is to explore state and school responses to accountability pressures under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Section 2 presents a framework for summarizing the many positive and negative ways in which states, schools, and teachers respond to accountability pressures under NCLB. Section 3 focuses on state accountability…

The author reports on a new study which reveals that the lowest-performing public K-8 schools often linger in that state for years, neither improving enough to get off accountability life support nor being shuttered completely. The study adds that persistently failing charter schools fare no better than regular public schools. Of 2,025 chronically…

Since No Child Left Behind was enacted, school districts have felt forced to focus on testing. Almost every curriculum decision is based on raising test scores. Under pressure to raise test scores, teachers are encouraged to implement strategies in their classrooms to prepare their students for the PSSA. No Child Left Behind has left school…

The authors report insights, based on annual site visits to elementary and middle schools in three states from 2004 to 2006, into the incentive effect of the No Child Left Behind Act's requirement that increasing percentages of students make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in every public school. They develop a framework, drawing on the physics…

This general achievement trends profile includes information that the Center on Education Policy (CEP) and the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) obtained from states from fall 2008 through April 2009. Included herein are: (1) Bullet points summarizing key findings about achievement trends in that state at three performance…

The purpose of this study was to obtain the attitudes and beliefs of mathematics teachers in the School District of Philadelphia regarding an eighth grade middle school mathematics core curriculum. This study explored the attitudes and beliefs of teachers in the reform of an eighth grade math "Core Curriculum, Math In Context" (School…

Due to the challenges of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, many schools and school districts are implementing after-school tutoring programs to provide students additional instruction to score proficient or better in reading and mathematics. This doctoral study analyzed the effects of the ABC Middle School Educational Assistance Program…

A long standing debate among policymakers as well as researchers is whether and how funding affects the quality of education. Often missing from the discussion is information about the costs of providing education at the school level and below, yet such information could impart a better indication of the linkages between outcomes and resources…