Test-based accountability systems aim to direct the behavior of educators toward the improvement of student achievement. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act codified accountability as the national educational blueprint, requiring schools to increase test scores incrementally so that all students are proficient in reading and math by 2014. Yet,…

As Americans in the 1970s become more aware of the complexities and uncertainties surrounding social intervention, we may develop, as have ecologists, more respect for the interrelatedness of many unseen forces and more awareness of the likelihood that each well-intentioned intervention may have large and unanticipated consequences. (Author)