Working Smarter to Leave No Child Behind
Practical Insights for School Leaders
Description:... The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is more inclusive than any previous federal school-reform legislation. Accountability based on student test results lies at the heart of NCLB, which requires states to set academic standards for all students, establish increasing annual targets for student performance, provide suitable assistance to schools to enable improvement, and offer educational alternatives for families with children in schools that have not shown adequate improvement despite assistance. This paper offers guidance to the state policymakers, district administrators, and school principals who must implement NCLB. It presents RAND's synthesis of the evidence on educational accountability systems and describes the NCLB accountability model, discusses its underlying assumptions, and offers educators specific recommendations for effectives operation in an era of accountability.
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