Educational Policy and School Reform Flashcards

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 required states to:

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.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015 replaced NCLB primarily by:

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.

The 'Nation at Risk' report (1983) is significant in US education history because it:

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.

Charter schools in the United States are best characterized as:

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.

School voucher programs are primarily intended to allow parents to:

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.

Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides federal funding primarily to:

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.