“The Accuracy and Effectiveness of Adequate Yearly Progress, NCLB’s School Evaluation System” is available from The Education Policy Research Unit at Arizona State University.
The No Child Left Behind Act’s main method for measuring whether schools and districts are reaching annual achievement goals is “fundamentally flawed” and should be suspended until further evaluations of the method are conducted, argues a report.
The federal law requires that schools make adequate yearly progress on state standardized tests as they strive to have all students reach proficiency standards by 2014, which the study also concludes is unattainable, according to the University of Vermont report, published by the Education Policy Research Unit at Arizona State University. The AYP practice of comparing one year’s 3rd grade test results, for example, with the previous year’s results is flawed, the report says.