No Child Left Behind?: The Politics and Practice of School Accountability - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0815770286 ISBN 13: 9780815770282

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, 2003

Synopsis

The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act is the most important legislation in American education since the 1960s. The law requires states to put into place a set of standards together with a comprehensive testing plan designed to ensure these standards are met. Students at schools that fail to meet those standards may leave for other schools, and schools not progressing adequately become subject to reorganization. The significance of the law lies less with federal dollar contributions than with the direction it gives to federal, state, and local school spending. It helps codify the movement toward common standards and school accountability. Yet NCLB will not transform American schools overnight. The first scholarly assessment of the new legislation, No Child Left Behind? breaks new ground in the ongoing debate over accountability. Contributors examine the law's origins, the political and social forces that gave it shape, the potential issues that will surface with its implementation, and finally, the law's likely consequences for American education.

About this title

About the Author:

Paul E. Peterson is the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government at Harvard, the director of PEPG, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is author or editor of numerous books, including The Education Gap: Vouchers and Urban Schools, with William G. Howell (Brookings, 2004 and 2006). Martin R. West is an assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and deputy director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He was formerly a guest scholar in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.

Review:

"...a revealing indication of how accountability, rather than markets, has become the current mantra." —Michael Duffy, The Times Educational Supplement, 3/5/2004

"... details how the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) changed from inception to signing, reviews its effects thus far, and forecasts its effects in the future.... The authors' critiques and cautions can serve as a guide for those involved in developing or implementing accountability systems." —Elizabeth Edgemon, University of Virginia, American School Board Journal, 8/1/2004

About this edition

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0815770286
• ISBN 13: 9780815770282
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 340
• Editor: Peterson Paul E., West Martin R.