NCLB Meets School Realities

Gail L. Sunderman is a senior research associate in K-12 Education for the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. Her research focuses on educational policy and politics, and urban school reform, including the development and implementation of education policy and the impact of policy on the educational opportunities for at-risk students. At the Civil Rights Project, she is project director on a five-year study examining the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and is coauthor of the book, NCLB Meets School Realities: Lessons from the Field, also from Corwin Press. Prior research includes studies on the implementation of Title I schoolwide programs, governance reform in the Chicago Public Schools, and understanding institutional and organizational constraints on implementing school reform initiatives. Her work has appeared in Harvard Educational Review, Teachers College Record, and Educational Researcher. She is a former Fulbright scholar and received her PhD in political science from the University of Chicago. James S. Kim, Ed.D., is an assistant professor of education policy and program evaluation at the University of California, Irvine. He is a former history teacher in an ethnically diverse middle school, where he served as chair of the history and civics department. He received his doctorate in education policy and research from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. While at Harvard, he worked as a research associate at the Center for Evaluation, where he conducted several studies on summer learning and the racial achievement gap. Most recently, he was a K-12 research associate at the Civil Rights Project at Harvard, and worked on a national study of the No Child Left Behind Act. His research interests include the use of quantitative methods to assess the effectiveness of compensatory education policies for disadvantaged students and the impact of reading programs on adolescent learning. Gary Orfield is Professor of Education and Social Policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Professor Orfield is interested in the study of civil rights, education policy, urban policy, and minority opportunity. He is Co-Founder and Director of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard, an initiative that is developing and publishing a new generation of research on multiracial civil rights issues. Orfield's central interest has been the development and implementation of social policy, with a central focus on the impact of policy on equal opportunity for success in American society. Recent works include studies of changing patterns of school desegregation and the impact of diversity on the educational experiences of law students. In addition to his scholarly work, Orfield has been involved with development of governmental policy and has served as an expert witness in court cases related to his research. He has participated as an expert witness of a court-appointed expert in several dozen civil rights cases, including the University of Michigan Supreme Court case which upheld the policy of affirmative action in 2003 and has been called to give testimony in civil rights suits by the United States Department of Justice and many civil rights, legal services, and educational organizations. In 1997, Orfield was awarded the American Political Science Association's Charles Merriam Award for his "contribution to the art of government through the application of social science research." A native Minnesotan, Orfield received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and travels annually to Latin America, where his research work is now expanding.

Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors About the Contributors Introduction 1. When Federal Power Is Expanded: The Politics of Implementing the No Child Left Behind Act 2. Test-Based Accountability and the Achievement Gap 3. Does NCLB Provide Good Choices for Students in Underperforming Schools? 4. Increasing Bureaucracy or Increasing Opportunities? School District Experience With Supplemental Educational Services 5. Listening to Teachers: Classroom Realities and NCLB 6. Graduation Rate Accountability Under the No Child Left Behind Act 7. Conclusion: Rethinking No Child Left Behind Endnotes References Index

"A timely study on the implementation of NCLB in 6 states during the initial phase of the reform. The authors' policy recommendations will be particularly useful to policy makers and practitioners in designing more effective strategies to improve schooling quality for the least advantaged children. This book will be widely adopted in graduate courses in educational policy and intergovernmental relations." -- Kenneth Wong, Professor "The well documented and thorough approach to collecting the data is a major strength. The material fits with my experiences as a practicing principal. This book can serve as a catalyst for quality conversation that is so drastically needed about how to make NCLB do what it is intended to do-ensure that every child is successful!" -- Bonnie Tryon, Principal "This is an important, topical book that provides a deep look at fundamental issues in the design and implementation of No Child Left Behind." -- Richard F. Elmore, Gregory Anrig Professor of Educational Leadership "This is a welcomed illustration of the multitude of ways the NCLB law affects children and schools." -- PsycCRITIQUES, February 2, 2006 Issue "One of a few empirical, multistate examinations of the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 with a focus on how the law affects minority and low-income students. Presents appropriate political and historical context, original data and analyses, and well-researched recommendations on how to improve public schools." -- The Harvard Educational Review, Spring 2006 "A valuable addition to the body of literature looking at NCLB implementation. The systematic approach the authors use to examine complex policy issues is refreshing and adds significant strength to their critiques of NCLB-as policy and as it has been implemented." -- Teachers College Record, Vol. 108, No. 1