Source Note: “No Child Left Behind, Accountability and AYP”

March 13, 2009 in Research Project

Title: “No Child Left Behind, Accountability and AYP”

Summary: 2002 Department of Education presentation outlines the requirements for school administrators.

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

Category: Institutional; PowerPoint Presentation

Publication Information: Student Achievement and School Accountability Conference, U.S. Department of Education, 10/02

Author: N/A

Location: Ed.gov

Accessed: March 12, 2009

Support:

• Required accountability system: The presentation indicates that states must create their own systems based on standardized assessments of all students, and implement a mechanism for holding schools accountable to the results of those assessments. There is no recommendation of a preferential system.
• How a state makes adequate yearly progress: The presentation indicates states must establish the AYP standard on their own, and then conduct an annual peer-review to determine whether that standard was met. There is no articulation of a specific mechanism that is preferable for meeting this requirement.

Audience and Agenda: The Department of Education is responsible for administering federal education law in the United States, and is headed by the Secretary of Education, who is appointed by the President of the United States at the beginning of his first term in office.

Usefulness: The presentation is more useful for what it doesn’t say than what it does. At no point is there any articulation or explanation of ways in which schools can meet federal guidelines, only the requirement that they do so. This makes the presentation useful support for the “reform” argument, as it isn’t realistic to expect schools to comply with regulations if they aren’t provided with some initial means to do so.

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