GAO: Growth Models Hold Promise for NCLB Accountability

Washington

Carefully-constructed growth models can help meet the No Child Left Behind Act’s goal of getting the nation’s students to academic proficiency, but states face technical hurdles in creating models that work, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

To make adequate yearly progress, or AYP, under the No Child Left Behind law, schools and districts must meet annual targets for the percentage of students who score at least at the proficient level on state reading and mathematics tests, both for the student population as a whole and for certain subgroups of students. Growth models would allow schools to meet standards by measuring the academic progress that students make from year to year, even if the students have not yet made it to the proficient level.

Two states, Tennessee and North Carolina, are currently running growth model pilot programs approved by the U.S. Department of Education. The GAO, the watchdog agency of Congress, said in the report that almost every state has created or is developing...