Writer Calls For Research-Based NCLB Reform

Elizabeth Demarest writes at Education Week (4/12) that there is a dearth of evidence that the "combination of top-down accountability and market competition" that is intended to improve student achievement under NCLB is working. "Test scores in the United States have not significantly improved in recent years, the achievement gap has not closed, and other developed nations have continued to build their educational capacity and surpass US performance on international assessments. Political rhetoric exhorts Americans to catch up, but the national policies that are driving education reform do not provide the means." Demarest calls for fundamental reform "solidly grounded in knowledge about education. Recent advances in knowledge about learning, teaching, and educational contexts that foster learning can potentially serve as a foundation for reform."