Progress in Implementing Standards, Assessments, and the Highly Qualified Teacher Provisions of NCLB
Perspectives from California, Georgia, and Pennsylvania
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates certain basic requirements and holds states, districts, and schools accountable for meeting them. States must adopt content standards; administer assessments in certain subjects and grades to measure student progress toward meeting those standards; and employ only highly qualified teachers to teach those standards. These are the basic requirements upon which states, districts, and schools are to be held accountable. This paper is one in the symposium “Implementing Standards-Based Accountability: Results from Classrooms, Schools, and Districts in Three States” and details findings from RAND’s Implementing Standards-Based Accountability (ISBA) study regarding the implementation of these requirements, with a focus on mathematics and science, in California, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.