Federal Government Exploring Individual Student Growth Under NCLB

The U.S. Department of Education is exploring different options for measuring progress under the No Child Left Behind Act, based on how much growth individual students make over time, according to attendees of the first meeting of a working group on growth models held in Washington June 22. “My sense was that they are very serious about it, and they’re looking at a range of options,” said Jim Mahoney, the executive director of Battelle for Kids, a nonprofit group based in Columbus, Ohio, that is working with some 115 districts in that state to track the headway that individual students make...