A Think Twice Review of:

Were all those standardized tests for nothing? The lessons of No Child Left Behind

Think Twice - Aug 27, 2013

Publisher/Think Tank - American Enterprise Institute

Author(s) -

The report, from a noted conservative think tank, attempts to isolate the effects of NCLB’s threat of sanctions on underperforming schools. The authors infer that federal pressure and punishment are promising policy avenues.

Reviewer(s) - Bruce Fuller, University of California Berkeley

A review found that the report is a worthwhile study of the effectiveness of punitive sanctions on student achievement in one state (North Carolina). The report offers recommendations for improving NCLB, but those recommendations are not tied to the report’s empirical analysis. Readers in search of an effective federal role will remain uninformed.