A survey of third-grade English Language Learner teachers reveals that Proposition 203 and the state's high-stakes testing policy are not improving education in Arizona.

Using several analyses of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test data from 25 states, a link between pressures associated with high-stakes testing and student achievement could not be established. The results of this research suggest that increases in testing pressure are related to increased retention in grade and drop-out rates.

Approximately 95 percent of all schools in the Great Lakes Region will fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress by 2014 should the No Child Left Behind remain unchanged and the driving force behind the measurement of school and student success.

Improvements in school accountability labels received by public elementary schools in Arizona fail to convey the decline in English Language Learner (ELL) test scores. Test data reveal that large achievement gaps still exist between ELLs and their counterparts, and that Structured English Immersion–the state's mandated method for teaching ELLs after the passage of Proposition 203–has not resulted in increased achievement.

This brief examines the inherent costs to states when implementing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements and the costs to schools when they fail to meet NCLB achievement goals.

This comprehensive review of national and state charter school evaluations shows that charter schools are rarely held accountable and, in general, perform no better thanSeptember 2005 traditional public schools.

This annual report, in its seventh edition, found that Education Management Organizations (EMOs) tend to focus on managing charter primary schools and on enrolling relatively large numbers of students in those schools. Fifty-nine EMOs operate in 24 states and the District of Columbia, enrolling some 239,766 students. The report is the most comprehensive resource on the for-profit education management industry.

The over-reliance on high-stakes testing has serious negative repercussions that are present at every level of the public school system. Test scores are the indicator that the federal government uses to hold educators, administrators, schools, and school districts accountable. By attaching high stakes to test scores, those involved and the test scores can be corrupted.

For more than three decades, the federal government had made steps toward meeting the needs of language minority students. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, however, marked a dramatic shift in education policy that devalues bilingual education and puts English language learners at the mercy of standardized tests that are written in a language in which they are not yet proficient.

EPRU Fellow Harold Berlak questions whether NCLB achieves its stated purpose: to raise standards of academic achievement.

Sharon Nichols and EPRU Fellow David Berliner discuss the findings of their new report, The Inevitable Corruption of Indicators and Educators Through High-Stakes Testing. They note that the pressure of high-stakes tests is forcing school districts and state Departments of Education to take inappropriate and at times unsavory actions to avoid being labeled as failing for not meeting certain benchmarks.

Find report in PDF

EPRU Fellow Gregory Smith discusses the dangers and consequences of making high school more difficult.

EPRU Fellow Gerald Bracey's response to Bill Gates's speech to the governors and op-ed in the LA Times about the state of American education.

Find Bill Gates's op-ed in PDF

Views on the relationship between student achievement and the well-being of the economy vary widely. EPRU Fellow Gerald Bracey presents the case that there hasn't been any relationship between economic cycles and education reform, and there is no reason to think there will be.
Ric Hanushek presents the traditional view that our economy is doomed if we don't improve our standing in international comparisons like PISA and TIMSS.
Tony Carnevale says that there have been many reasons why our mediocre performance hasn't mattered yet, but it will.

EPRU Fellow Gerald Bracey comments on the problems with charter schools in his essay in USA Today.