Education Department Convenes Working Group on ‘Growth’ Models

Panels to Study Whether to Accept Individuals’ Progress Over Time

The U.S. Department of Education is exploring options for measuring progress under the No Child Left Behind Act that are based on how much academic growth individual students show over time, according to attendees of the first meeting of a working group on such models.

“My sense was that they are very serious about it, and they’re looking at a range of options,” Jim Mahoney, the executive director of Battelle for Kids, said of department officials. His nonprofit group, based in Columbus, Ohio, is working with some 115 districts in that state to track the headway that individual students make from year to year.

Mr. Mahoney was one of 14 people—representing a mix of researchers, state and local officials, nonprofit organizations, and interest groups—who were invited to the first of a series of meetings last month sponsored by the Education Department on using so-called growth models...