Education Law

NCLB's effect on student achievement remains unknown

State test scores in reading and math are up and achievement gaps have narrowed since 2002, but these findings cannot be directly attributed to NCLB, according to a new report by the Center on Education Policy. Jack Jennings, president and CEO of CEP, cited two reasons why a causal relationship between the law and test results cannot be drawn: First researchers cannot isolate the effect of NCLB because of many state and local district efforts that were in play. Second, there was no control group which was not affected by NCLB.

The report also looked at NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) scores over the same years and found that NAEP scores generally moved in the same direction as state test scores, with one exception in grade 8 reading, where fewer states showed gains on NAEP than on state tests. The authors of the report were not able to explain the reason for the exception, reiterating that NAEP standards do not match state standards and that the curriculums between the two are different. NSBA does not believe comparison of state test data and NAEP data yield many meaningful conclusions. For more, click here.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on June 25, 2008 (boomark / email).