FED Educational Policy and School Reform 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 required states to:
- Fully fund all public schools equally
- Test students annually in reading and math and report results disaggregated by subgroup (Correct answer)
- Eliminate standardized testing entirely
- Grant full local control over school curriculum
Correct answer: Test students annually in reading and math and report results disaggregated by subgroup
NCLB mandated annual testing in reading and math in grades 3-8 and once in high school, with results broken down by race, income, disability, and other subgroups to reveal achievement gaps.
Question 2: The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015 replaced NCLB primarily by:
- Eliminating all federal oversight of public education
- Shifting significant accountability authority back to individual states (Correct answer)
- Requiring national standardized tests for all grades K-12
- Federalizing teacher evaluation systems
Correct answer: Shifting significant accountability authority back to individual states
ESSA maintained federal requirements for annual testing but gave states far more flexibility to design their own accountability systems, reducing federal prescription that characterized NCLB.
Question 3: The 'Nation at Risk' report (1983) is significant in US education history because it:
- Called for eliminating standardized testing
- Warned that poor academic performance threatened American economic competitiveness and sparked the standards movement (Correct answer)
- Mandated bilingual education in all public schools
- Recommended reducing the length of the school year
Correct answer: Warned that poor academic performance threatened American economic competitiveness and sparked the standards movement
'A Nation at Risk' famously described 'a rising tide of mediocrity' in American schools and directly catalyzed the standards-based reform movement that shaped education policy for decades.
Question 4: Charter schools in the United States are best characterized as:
- Private schools funded entirely by tuition
- Publicly funded schools that operate with greater autonomy from district regulations in exchange for accountability for results (Correct answer)
- Religious schools receiving government vouchers
- Alternative schools serving only special education students
Correct answer: Publicly funded schools that operate with greater autonomy from district regulations in exchange for accountability for results
Charter schools receive public funding and must be open to all students, but operate under a charter (contract) that grants freedom from many district rules in exchange for meeting specific performance goals.
Question 5: School voucher programs are primarily intended to allow parents to:
- Receive tax credits for homeschooling expenses
- Use public funds to pay tuition at private, including religious, schools of their choice (Correct answer)
- Transfer their child to any public school in the state
- Access federal grants for college preparation
Correct answer: Use public funds to pay tuition at private, including religious, schools of their choice
Voucher programs provide families, especially those in low-performing schools, with public funds to apply toward tuition at private schools, raising issues of school choice and church-state separation.
Question 6: Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides federal funding primarily to:
- Gifted and talented programs in suburban schools
- Schools and districts with high concentrations of students from low-income families (Correct answer)
- Physical education and arts programs nationwide
- Advanced Placement courses in public high schools
Correct answer: Schools and districts with high concentrations of students from low-income families
Title I is the largest federal K-12 program, directing funds to high-poverty schools to improve the academic achievement of disadvantaged students.
FED Educational Policy and School Reform 1
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 required states to: