Education Reform in the American States (PB)

Education Reform in the American States is a timely evaluation of the accountabilitymovement in American public education culminating in the No Child Left Behind Actfederal legislation of 2002. The authors treat the current accountability movementplacing it in historical context and addressing the evolution in public educationpolicymaking from the overwhelming emphasis on state and local discretion to increasingfederal oversight and mandates related to federal funding. They provide case studies ofthe educational accountability movements in nine states and analyze the factors andforces which explain progress in achievement levels as measured on standardized testsand the states' prospects for meeting their NCLB targets. The book and the individualcase studies acknowledge the merits of NCLB while exposing several significant flawsand unintended harmful consequences of the act particularly its incentives for states tolower their standards in order to meet annual yearly progress targets and its threat to withdraw federal funds from districts withthe highest percentage of disadvantaged students.The audience for this study includes local state and federal education policyrnakers; administrators and instructors in schoolsof education and other teaching programs educators; and the general public.