AYP reconsidered

A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) finds a possible upside to NCLB's much-maligned accountability system, reports Lauren Camera for Education Week. Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) required states to increase the number of students rated proficient on state tests each year, with the goal of reaching 100 percent proficiency by 2014. The law established tiered consequences for schools that failed to meet the yearly proficiency goals, increasing in severity each subsequent year that a school missed its target. Researchers from the NBER analyzed student-level data from North Carolina and found the early, more lenient sanctions for schools that initially failed to meet AYP -- such as simply being labeled failing or allowing students to transfer out of the school -- positively impacted performance. Intermediate interventions for schools that failed to meet AYP for a couple of years in a row, such as mandatory tutoring for low-income students, had no demonstrable effect. Leadership and management changes associated with school restructuring -- one of the most stringent sanctions for schools that chronically failed to meet AYP -- yielded the most positive impact. The study also showed that low-performing students gained most from the sanctions, though there was no evidence that low-performing students gained anything from another one of the most severe sanctions, which deprived high-performing students of resources. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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