What impact has NCLB had on student performance?

A new analysis of NAEP scores by the Fordham Institute examines the impact of NCLB on student achievement by comparing Texas to national scores. Texas was one of the first states to adopt accountability through high stakes testing. Texas early implementation of the core components of NCLB provides researchers an opportunity to look at the ability of “consequential accountability” to improve student’s math and reading scores. The Fordham study finds what appears to be a positive correlation for improvements in NAEP math scores that put Texas student out front of the national averages. The performance of Texas students improved in comparison to the national average after the implementation of consequential accountability in the 1990’s and as the other 49 states adopted similar standards required by NCLB the gap in performance narrowed and all but disappeared by 2009.

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