Source Note: “Leaving NCLB Behind (Figure 3)”

March 3, 2009 in Research Project

Title: “Leaving NCLB Behind (Figure 3)”

Summary: A graph of 2008 Harvard survey results reveals NCLB may have “poisoned the well” of public educators with regards to standards-based accountability reforms.

Topic: Should the Obama Administration reform the No Child Left Behind Act?

Category: Academic; Image; Graph of Survey Results

Publication Information: “The 2008 Education Next-PEPG Survey of Public Opinion,” Education Next: A Journal of Opinion and Research, Fall 2008 (volume 8, issue number 4)

Author: William G. Howell, Martin R. West and Paul E. Peterson

Location: Hoover.org

Accessed: February 13th, 2009

Support:

• 2008 survey, Harvard University Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG): The survey sought to determine the views of both the general public and the educational community regarding the No Child Left Behind Act. Results of the 2008 survey were compared to those of a very similar 2008 survey also conducted under the auspices of the PEPG. The researchers identified a 7% decrease in support for reauthorization of NCLB, with 57% support in 2007 and 50% support in 2008. When the act was referred to only as “federal legislation” regarding standards-based accountability, there was an even greater decrease of 14%, from 71% in 2007 to 57% in 2008.

Audience and Agenda: Education Next is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Hoover Institution, a research center at Stanford University in California. The Hoover Institution takes a strictly academic stance in its research pursuits, and a perusal of its Quantcast profile reveals shared readership primarily with academic publishing firms such as National Academies Press, research gathering companies such as Wrightslaw, and newspapers such as the Washington Post. 49% of its readers are college educated, with 26% holding a graduate degree.

Usefulness: The graph indicates that many in the education community have lost faith in federal accountability reform altogether. Their distrust of standards-based accountability legislation indicates that the best course of action with NCLB may be a total repeal, rather than piecemeal reforms.

Works cited:

“hoover.org – Quantcast Audience Profile,” http://www.quantcast.com/hoover.org

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