Is the No Child Left Behind Act Working?

This working paper evaluates the reliability of state testing systems under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act by comparing state-reported proficiency rates with federal National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results across 12 states from 1992 to 2005. The analysis highlights a persistent disparity between state and federal measures of student achievement, with states consistently reporting higher percentages of fourth-graders achieving proficiency in reading and math compared to NAEP results. This discrepancy existed even before NCLB, indicating that states have long set lower benchmarks for proficiency. While NAEP data shows some improvement in math proficiency over time, reading performance has largely stagnated.

The analysis reveals that during the three school years following the enactment of NCLB in January 2002, some states continued to make progress in raising math proficiency, but reading performance frequently plateaued or declined. States with previously weak accountability systems, like Arkansas and Nebraska, demonstrated improvements in math proficiency but not in reading. The findings suggest that state test results often overestimate progress, particularly in reading, compared to the more modest gains reflected by NAEP data. This discrepancy raises questions about the validity of state testing systems and the overall effectiveness of NCLB’s accountability measures.

The authors propose several recommendations to enhance the consistency and reliability of state assessments, such as formally benchmarking state tests to NAEP standards, improving transparency regarding test rigor, and designing assessments that effectively measure higher-order thinking skills. They emphasize that aligning state testing systems with federal standards is essential for producing valid and reliable measures of student progress over time.