Abstract

Prior to the 2012–13 school year, New York and many other states underwent changes to their accountability systems as a result of applying for and being granted waivers from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. A key component of these new accountability systems, under what is known as ESEA Flexibility or NCLB Waivers, was the designation of the lowest performing 5% of Title I schools as priority schools with the goal of improved performance within three years of receiving their designation. The priority school policy included elements of both accountability and school turnaround to try to improve student outcomes in low performing schools. This study examines the extent to which elementary and middle priority schools in New York State improved in the three years since being designated priority schools. By the end of the 2014–15 school year—the third year of three to show improvement—I find elementary and middle priority schools did not show improvement and, in fact, performed worse than schools just above the cutoff for determining priority school eligibility.

摘要

在2012-13学年之前，纽约州和许多其他州由于申请并获得了2001年“不让任何一个孩子滞留法案”的要求而获得豁免，因此对其问责制进行了更改。这些新法案的重要组成部分问责制，即所谓的ESEA灵活性或NCLB豁免，是将表现最好的5％的I类学校指定为优先学校，目标是在获得指定的三年内提高绩效。优先学校政策包括问责制和学校周转的要素，以试图改善低绩效学校的学生成绩。这项研究探讨了自从被指定为优先学校以来，纽约州中小学在三年内的改善程度。