Synopses & Reviews
NCLB is the signal domestic policy initiative of the Bush administration and the most ambitious piece of federal education legislation in at least thirty-five years. Mandating a testing regime to force schools to continually improve student performance, it uses school choice and additional learning resources as sticks and carrots intended to improve low-performing schools and districts. The focus is on improving alternatives to children in low-performing schools.
Here top experts evaluate the potential and the problems of NCLB in its initial stages of implementation. This first look provides valuable insights, offering lessons crucial to understanding this dramatic change in American education.
Review
"It is time for public debate about NCLB to move beyond hype, hope, and imagined fears. This collection is at the cutting edge of what will be a new wave of empirically-based assessments. It will be an important resource for all concerned about the implications of NCLB."--Jeffrey R. Henig, Teachers College, Columbia University, Co-author,
Building Civic Capacity: The Politics of Reforming Urban Schools
About the Author
Chester E. Finn, Jr. is Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, President of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and Thomas B. Fordham Institute, and Senior Editor of
Education Next. Frederick M. Hess is Director of Education Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and Executive Editor of Education Next.
Table of Contents
Introduction--Frederick M. Hess and Chester E. Finn, Jr. * Public School Choice: An Overview--Richard Lee Colvin * The Invisible Hand of No Child Left Behind--Siobhan Gorman * Can NCLB Increase Options for Low Income Students? Evidence from Across the States--Robert Maranto * Florida's Implementation of the NCLB Choice Provisions: Confusions, Constraints, and Cascading Scenarios--Jane Hannaway * No Child Left Behind in Colorado: Layered Reforms and Challenges of Scale--Alex Medler * False Start in Michigan--David Plank and Christopher Dunbar Jr. * Fumbling for an Exit Key: Parents, Choice, and the Future of No Child Left Behind--William Howell (survey) * No Child Left Behind: A Status Report on Choice and Supplemental Services in America's Great City Schools--Michael Casserly * Do Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth? The Implementation of No Child Left Behind in San Diego--Julian Betts and Anne Danenberg * Thunderous Clouds, No Rain: NCLB in Worcester, Massachusetts--William Howell (Worcester) * Montgomery County Public Schools and No Child Left Behind: A Tale of Implementing School Choice--Doug Reed * Conclusion--Frederick M. Hess and Chester E. Finn, Jr.