Research confirms that, by requiring states that had not previously implemented school accountability systems to do so, No Child Left Behind worked to generate
modest improvements in student learning, concentrated in math and among the lowest - performing students — precisely those on whom the law was focused.
If the objective is not just to rank teachers and slice off those at the bottom, irrespective of accuracy, but instead to support
improvement while providing evidence needed for action, this
modest proposal suggests we might make more headway by allowing educators to design systems that truly add value to their knowledge of how
students are
learning in relation to how teachers are teaching.