State Tests Show Gains Since NCLB

Report cautions against crediting education law.

Scores on state tests have increased consistently and significantly in the five years since the No Child Left Behind Act became law, and there’s some evidence that gains that started in the 1990s accelerated after the law’s enactment, a new report concludes .

The authors of the report, which was set for release this week, are quick to say that the gains found in their comprehensive review of all 50 states’ test results can’t necessarily be attributed to the NCLB law. But the study is almost sure to play a role in the debate over the future of the law as Congress works to reauthorize it.

“Everything that reflects positively on the law has been used as ammunition to date” by its supporters, said Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and a member of a panel that...