Key Education Issues Facing the 111th Congress
Reauthorizing No Child Left Behind
One of the key items on the agenda of the 111th Congress will be reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). When Congress passed NCLB, it established an ambitious goal for the nation’s states, districts, and schools: All children will be proficient in reading and mathematics by the 2013–14 school year. How the federal government achieves this goal is multifaceted, but at its heart lies a set of performance-based accountability provisions that build on and expand those of the law that preceded it, the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994 (IASA).
It has now been eight years since NCLB was enacted, and as Congress begins the process of reauthorization, it is important to understand what we have learned about the implementation of NCLB within states and about NCLB’s effectiveness. To help inform that process, when Congress passed NCLB in 2001, it also mandated two longitudinal studies—the National Longitudinal Study of No Child Left Behind (NLS-NCLB) and the Study of State Implementation of Accountability and Teacher Quality Under No Child Left Behind (SSI-NCLB)—to provide an integrated evaluation of the implementation of key NCLB provisions at the state level (SSI-NCLB) and at the district and school levels (NLS-NCLB). The two studies have involved the collaboration of researchers from the RAND Corporation and the American Institutes for Research (AIR).
Over the years, RAND and AIR have produced a series of reports based on the two longitudinal studies for the U.S. Department of Education that focus on the topics of accountability, teacher quality, Title I school choice and supplemental educational services, and resource allocation. Those reports—along with a series of separate studies conducted by RAND for the National Science Foundation that looked at NCLB implementation experiences in three states: California, Georgia, and Pennsylvania—provide insights that can help guide the reauthorization process and make the reauthorized NCLB more effective in the coming years.
Expanding the Reach of Charter Schools
Charter schools are one of the most prominent and far-reaching policies enacted to increase family choice in the nation's elementary and secondary schools, and they have been among the fastest-growing segments of the K–12 education sector over the past decade. Charter schools are publicly funded schools that parents can choose and that have the flexibility to operate outside normal district control. They are designed to provide greater educational choice to families, reduce bureaucratic constraints on educators, and provide competitive pressure to induce improvement in conventional public schools, all while remaining publicly accountable.
The growth of charter schools raises a host of issues, including how well such schools achieve relative to traditional public schools and the ways in which the specific design of charter school policy—such as funding levels and limitations, admission policies, academic standards and assessments, and accountability—determine the nature and extent of any specific school's impact. Unfortunately, because the debate over charter schools is highly charged, much of the discussion of these issues is driven by the rhetoric of proponents and critics of charter schools.
Over the years, RAND Corporation researchers have added clarity to the debate by creating a comprehensive assessment of charter schools that reviewed the theoretical foundations for such schools and the empirical evidence of their effectiveness as set forth in hundreds of recent reports and studies. In addition, with a focus on charter schools in California, Chicago, and Florida, researchers have conducted their own examination, using individual student-level data to track students from school to school over time and to measure their test scores in both traditional and charter schools. Results of these efforts provide policymakers with evidence-based research on charter schools that cuts through the rhetoric on both sides. New research focused on charter schools in other states is forthcoming.
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RESEARCHER PROFILE
Vi-Nhuan Le
Vi-Nhuan Le is a Behavioral Scientist in the Santa Monica office. Her research interest lies in mathematics and science reform, educational assessment, and early childhood education. Currently, she is co-leading a project that evaluates the effects of student participation in an outreach program on their motivation, academic achievement, and college attendance. She is also co-leading a project that identifies optimal cut-off points within quality rating systems for child care providers. She holds a PhD in Education from Stanford University.
Read more work by Ms. Le »
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RAND CONGRESSIONAL RESOURCES STAFF
Lindsey Kozberg
Vice President, Office of External Affairs
Shirley Ruhe
Director, Office of Congressional Relations
Carmen Ferro
Education Legislative Analyst
RAND Office of Congressional Relations
(703) 413-1100 x5395
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