Journal Article

The impact of no Child Left Behind on student achievement

Dee, Thomas S., Jacob, Brian

2011

Overview

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act compelled states to design school accountability systems based on annual student assessments. The effect of this federal legislation on the distribution of student achievement is a highly controversial but centrally important question. This study presents evidence on whether NCLB has influenced student achievement based on an analysis of state-level panel data on student test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The impact of NCLB is identified using a comparative interrupted time series analysis that relies on comparisons of the test-score changes across states that already had school accountability policies in place prior to NCLB and those that did not. Our results indicate that NCLB generated statistically significant increases in the average math performance of fourth graders (effect size = 0.23 by 2007) as well as improvements at the lower and top percentiles. There is also evidence of improvements in eighth-grade math achievement, particularly among traditionally low-achieving groups and at the lower percentiles. However, we find no evidence that NCLB increased fourth-grade reading achievement.

• Publisher: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company,Wiley Subscription Services, Inc,Wiley-Blackwell,John Wiley & Sons, Inc,John Wiley & Sons, Ltd,Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subject: Academic Achievement / Academic success / Access to education / Accountability / Achievement Gains / Achievement tests / Child welfare / Children / Comparative Analysis / Comparative Testing / Education policy / Educational Assessment / Educational attainment / Educational Improvement / Educational Indicators / Educational Policy / Elementary school students / Federal Legislation / Grade 4 / Learning outcomes / Legislation / Mathematics Achievement / Mathematics education / National Assessment of Educational Progress / National Competency Tests / No Child Left Behind Act / No Child Left Behind Act 2001 / No Child Left Behind Act 2001-US / Panel data / Policy Analysis / Program Effectiveness / Public policy / Public schools / Reading Achievement / Robustness (Statistics) / School districts / Schools / Scores / Size / Standard deviation / State government / State schools / State Surveys / Students / Studies / Test Results / Test scores / Time series / U.S.A