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New Harvard Study: NCLB Has Not Improved National Achievement or Narrowed Racial Gaps

The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University has released a new study that reports that the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) hasn't improved reading and mathematical achievement or reduced achievement gaps. The study also shows that NCLB won't meet its goals of 100 percent student proficiency by 2014 if the trends of the first several years continue.

New Harvard Study: NCLB Has Not Improved National Achievement or Narrowed Racial Gaps

Harvard University's Civil Rights Project's Tracking Achievement Gaps and Assessing the Impact of NCLB on the Gaps: An In-Depth Look into National and State Reading and Math Outcomes concludes that NCLB is failing to close racial achievement gaps and will miss its goals by 2014 according to recent trends.

The report says that NCLB has had no significant impact on improving reading and math achievement since it was introduced in 2001, contradicting claims and potentially adding to concerns over America's academic competitiveness.

NCLB was meant to introduce national standards to an education system where only two-thirds of teenagers graduate from high school, a proportion that slides to 50 percent for blacks and Hispanics.

According to the study conducted by Harvard University's Civil Rights Project, national average of achievement by U.S. students has been flat in reading since 2001 and the growth rate in math has remained the same as before the policy was introduced.

The report is available at: http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/esea/nclb_naep_lee.pdf

 

Published Monday, Jun. 26, 2006

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