No Child Left Behind?: The Politics and Practice of School Accountability FROM THE PUBLISHER
The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act is the most important legislation in
American education since the 1960s. The law requires states to put into
place a set of standards together with a comprehensive testing plan
designed to ensure these standards are met. Students at schools that
fail to meet those standards may leave for other schools, and schools
not progressing adequately become subject to reorganization. The
significance of the law lies less with federal dollar contributions than
with the direction it gives to federal, state, and local school
spending. It helps codify the movement toward common standards and
school accountability.
Yet NCLB will not transform American schools overnight. The first
scholarly assessment of the new legislation, No Child Left Behind?
breaks new ground in the ongoing debate over accountability.
Contributors examine the law's origins, the political and social
forces that gave it shape, the potential issues that will surface with
its implementation, and finally, the law's likely consequences for
American education.
About the Author:
Paul E. Peterson is Henry Lee Shattuck professor of government and
director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard
University. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford
University.
Martin R. West is a research fellow at the Program on Education Policy
and Governance at Harvard University.
SYNOPSIS
Identifying "accountability" as the central aim of the No Child Left Behind Act (signed by George W. Bush in January 2002), Peterson (of Stanford U.'s Hoover Institution) and West (Harvard U.) present 13 papers that sympathetically describe the political origins of "accountability politics," examine educational practice as it is impacted by the law and other similar regulations, and explore the possible impacts of the "accountability" movement. Also discussed are the groups that are opposed to "accountability" measures, such as teachers and significant groups of parents, as well as ways to overcome their objections or opposition. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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