Understanding Policy Impact on Education Effectiveness

Evidence of Effectiveness for NCLB Policies Presented by the Bush Team: Jennifer Brodar, Stephanie Fakharzadeh, Sol Bee Jung, Kerry O'Grady, and Chris Wrightson

Key Policy Idea 1: Assessments NAEP (1960 s) National Assessment Governing Board 1992: Created achievement levels Basic, Proficient, Advanced Previously only comparative Statewide Testing Implemented from 1992-1997 Develop own vs. commercial assessment Balance of open response and multiple choice Considerations of reliability, cost & time Validity (Researchers) Construct validity Bias across populations Teaching to the test Accountability (Politicians) Easier to tie numbers to funding

Key Policy Idea 2: Standards 14 States had adopted standards (2000) Diane Ravitch National Standards in American Education: A Citizen's Guide.(1995) Schmoker & Marzano Bloated content standards need trimming Only effective when fully taught & assessed Rotherham s White Paper Wanted National Standards 29/44 TIMSS Countries had them Textbook coverage vs. performance Little evidence on effectiveness of standards Little clarity on standards for standards 1993 CPRE Policy Brief

Key Policy Idea 3: Accountability Bush s Texas Miracle Implemented high-stakes testing Houston Dropouts fell (Later determined creative classifying ) Test scores rose (Later determined to be Pearson test-taking tests) Kentucky Example High-stakes testing in two year cycles 34% of Schools met goal 60% of general public supported idea 60% of principals and 75% of teachers opposed idea

Key Policy Idea 3A: Choice Evidence from business world free market vote with your feet Racial/economic segregation Private schools perform better than public schools Hard to separate value-added from selection criteria Hoxby- 1998 More school districts in area lead to higher achievement & lower per pupil spending Concerns of confounding variables/statistical assumptions Parents choose based on location, not quality Alum Rock, CA Minnesota- less than 2% took advantage of statewide choice

Key Policy Idea 3B: Funding Rotherham s White Paper $118 Billion on Title I, achievement gap stayed static Some improvement for lowest-income students Needed better support for LEP 44% drop out rate for Hispanic students born outside US 15% of schools that needed LEP funding in 1998 got it Need to shift from program-based funding to evidence-based $1.2 billion class-size reduction under Clinton Teacher quality proven to be more impactful Impoverished areas: $4.63 per pupil federal funding & $0.62 state Tying funding to evidence would push research

References Developing Content Standards: Creating a Process for Change. CPRE Policy Brief., October 1993. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED362981. Fuhrman, S. H. (1999). The New Accountability. CPRE Policy Brief. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED429336 Goldhaber, Dan D. School Choice: An Examination of the Empirical Evidence on Achievement, Parental Decision Making, and Equity. Educational Researcher 28, no. 9 (December 1, 1999): 16 25. doi:10.3102/0013189X028009016. Hamilton, L., Stecher, B., & Yuan, K. (2008). Standards-Based Reform in the United States: History, Research, and Future Directions. Leung, R. (2013, February 18). Bush s Texas Miracle debunked, Lone Star State sparks anti-testing revolution. Retrieved February 18, 2015, from http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/bushs-texas-miracle-debunked-lone-star-st McDonnell, L, and C Choisser. Testing and Teaching: Local Implementation of New State Assessments. National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST), Center for the Study of Evaluation (CSE), Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, 1997. Mullis, Ina V. S., and And Others. NAEP 1992--Reading Report Card for the Nation and the States: Data from the National and Trial State Assessments. U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Mail Stop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402- 9328., 1993. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED369067. Nave, Bill, Edward Miech, and Frederick Mosteller. A Lapse in Standards - Linking Standards-Based Reform with Student Achievement. Phi Delta Kappan 82, no. 2 (October 1, 2000): 128. Rotherham, A., & Insitute, P. P. (1999). Toward performance-based federal education funding. Policy Report. Schmoker, M., & Marzano, R. J. (1999). Realizing the promise of standards-based education. Educational Leadership, 56, 17-21. Smith, Mary Lee, and Patricia Fey. Validity and Accountability in High-Stakes Testing. Journal of Teacher Education 51, no. 5 (November 1, 2000): 334 44. doi:10.1177/0022487100051005002. Stanford, J. (2013, February 18). The Texas Miracle. Retrieved February 18, 2015, from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-texas- miracle/ Stanford University. (2000). History of standards based reform. Retrieved from http://web.stanford.edu/~hakuta/www/archives/syllabi/CalTex_SBR/historysbr.html

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