All states that meet federal criteria will now be allowed to take part in the U.S. Department of Education's 2-year-old experiment with "growth models," which let states measure individual students' achievement gains as a way of ensuring accountability under the No Child Left Behind Act. After originally capping participation at 10…

After several years of planning and a series of false starts, a new federal venture to review reading research has hit another bureaucratic hurdle--one that could keep it from ever getting off the ground. A planned announcement last week of the membership of the Commission on Reading Research was put on hold by the National Institute for Literacy…

In the debate over the future of the No Child Left Behind Act, policymakers, educators, and researchers seem to agree on one thing: The federal law's accountability system should be rewritten so it rewards or sanctions schools on the basis of students' academic growth. The U.S. Department of Education recently reaffirmed the Bush administration's…

President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton have both enacted significant expansions in federal oversight of K-12 schools during their terms. In the combined 15 years of the Clinton and Bush presidencies so far, the federal government has required states to set academic goals for their students and has made schools and districts…

Supporters and critics of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) agree on only one thing and that the law should be fixed and quickly. However, it looks that Congress will not be able to make much progress in addressing the flaws of NCLB this year. This circumstance will endanger the prospects that the revision of the law might not be completed…

According to a new report by Mass Insight Education and Research Institute, a Boston-based research and advocacy group, state, district, and school leaders must link arms to create a different model for turning around the worst-performing schools, including a "protected space" free from many traditional rules. Mass Insight envisions a…

New reports looking at how the teacher-quality provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act are playing out in the nation's classrooms suggest that, while compliance with the 5 1/2-year-old federal law is widespread, problems and inequities persist and, in the end, labeling a teacher "highly qualified" is no guarantee of effectiveness.…

This article reports on the draft bill that outlines key House members' plans to change the accountability system by measuring students' academic growth and adding other indicators to those in reading and mathematics. The release this week of a preliminary proposal for reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act starts a busy fall in…

This article reports on the "discussion draft" released on September 6, about a week after a preliminary proposal to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law's core Title I program was unveiled. Under the latest House proposal for reauthorizing the NCLB Act, the federal government would invest billions in improving the nation's…

This article reports on two national teachers' unions that have mounted a vigorous lobbying campaign to rewrite language linking teacher bonuses to student test scores and other incentive-pay provisions contained in a draft bill for reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act. Members of the National Education Association circulated in the halls of…

Historically, it has been tough to get teachers for urban districts, but this is not the case in Baltimore, Maryland, anymore. Since 2002, the New Teacher Project has been finding at least 10 applicants for each teaching job it fills for the once hard-to-staff Baltimore district. Armed with unorthodox recruitment strategies, the group targets…

When President Bush and Congress crafted the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, they agreed on one specific goal for academic achievement: All students would be proficient in reading and mathematics by the end of the 2013-14 school year. This article reports on the reconsideration of this law's timeline on proficiency. Once considered sacrosanct,…

With prominent critics labeling them irrelevant and big-city mayors looking to take them over, the nation's local school boards have seen better times. But what's really the matter with the nearly 15,000 boards, scholars who met here this month say, is that they are understudied. Though local boards have governed American schools for more than 200…

The debate over linking teacher pay to student test scores that ignited on Capitol Hill recently underscores the growing momentum--and continued controversy--behind tying what teachers earn to what students learn. Both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers came out swinging against language in a draft bill for…

In recent years, a handful of education scholars have begun to cast a wider net for advice on how to engineer successful school turnarounds. The need for turnaround strategies that work is more timely than ever. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the list of schools identified to be in need of help grows longer by the year, making…