AVERAGES MAY MISLEAD PARENTS CONSIDERING NCLB TRANSFER

http://www.nwea.org/assets/research/national/NCLBImpact_2005_Brief.pdf

A new study of 270,000 public school students by the Northwest Evaluation Association warns that the No Child Left Behind law may prompt some parents to send children from low-performing schools to others that appear to foster high achievement but do a poor job of raising individual student scores. "The study endorses the view of many educators, including some supporters of No Child Left Behind, that school achievement ratings will work better once all school systems can keep track of every student's improvement each year, rather than just compare one year's average test scores with the scores of other students from the previous year," says the Washington Post.

Citation: Bowe, B., Cronin, J., Kingsbury, G.G. & McCall, M.S. (2005). The impact of the No Child Left Behind act on student achievement and growth: 2005 edition. Retrieved from the Northwest Evaluation Association on March 10, 2008. Website: http://www.nwea.org/assets/research/national/NCLBImpact_2005_Brief.pdf