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Education Reform in the American States is a timely evaluation of the accountability
movement in American public education, culminating in the No Child Left Behind Act,
federal legislation of 2002. The authors treat the current accountability movement,
placing it in historical context and addressing the evolution in public education
policymaking from the overwhelming emphasis on state and local discretion to increasing
federal oversight and mandates related to federal funding. They provide case studies of
the educational accountability movements in nine states and analyze the factors and
forces which explain progress in achievement levels as measured on standardized tests
and the states' prospects for meeting their NCLB targets. The book and the individual
case studies acknowledge the merits of NCLB while exposing several significant flaws
and unintended harmful consequences of the act, particularly its incentives for states to
lower their standards in order to meet annual yearly progress targets and its threat to withdraw federal funds from districts with
the highest percentage of disadvantaged students.
The audience for this study includes local, state and federal education policyrnakers; administrators and instructors in schools
of education and other teaching programs, educators; and the general public.
