1. Origins of the Key Policy Ideas of NCLB Presented by the “Bush” Team: Jennifer Brodar, Stephanie Fakharzadeh, Sol Bee Jung, Kerry O'Grady, and Chris Wrightson

2. Rise of the standards-based reform movement  “A Nation at Risk” (Reagan Education Secretary Bell’s National Commission on Excellence in Education in 1983)  President George H.W. Bush’s 1989 education summit with the nation’s governors in Charlottesville, VA  Bush’s “ America 2000 ” inclusion of voluntary national testing (1991)  Passage of Clinton “ Goals 2000 ” of 1994  1994 5-year reauthorization of ESEA (ending July 2000) or the Improving America’s Schools Act  Title I and performance standards  “Adequate yearly progress” requirement  Debates around school choice/portability/flexibility  BUSH campaign

3. Key Policy Idea 1: Assessments  Standards-based testing  High-stakes testing  BUSH/KRESS  Bush, as governor, annualized testing in reading and math in grades 3-8 and implemented high stakes testing starting from grade 10  NAEP/“national testing”  NCLB required grade 3-8 annual testing and 4th and 8th grade NAEP participation  MILLER (Democrat-House) continued to push to make it more difficult for states to opt out of NAEP (against Boehner’s NAEP opt-out provision)

4. Key Policy Idea 2: Standards  AYP (school, district, state)  AYP first became law in 1994  1999 Student Results Act (H.R. 2)  Left the determination of what constitute AYP up to the local agencies and states  Required annual numerical goals for improving performance of all groups  Required that a certain percent of students be proficient on all state assessment in ten years

5. Key Policy Idea 3: Accountability  Report cards  1999 Student Results Act (H.R. 2)  Separate comparison of performance and progress of students by subgroups  Corrective action for failing schools; 2-year identification for “school improvement” and consequences  MILLER pushed for tightening regulations regarding AYP Key Policy Idea 3A: Choice  NCLB includes: public school choice, funding for charter school creation/school restructuring; flexible Title I spending  NEW DEMOCRATS/LIEBERMAN’s Three R’s: Public Education Reinvestment, Reinvention, and Responsibility (S. 2254)  S.2 included Straight A’s, teacher training-class size reduction consolidation, H.R. 2, public school choice (1999)

6. Key Policy Idea 3B: Funding  Performance-based funding/Title I  1998 “think group” meetings convened by GORTON and LIEBERMAN  1999 ROTHERHAM’s white paper “Toward Performance-Based Federal Education Funding”  NEW DEMOCRATS  Student Results Act (H.R. 2)  Block grants/categorical grants  Greater flexibility in choosing how states and districts spend federal dollars  Academic Achievement for All Act (Straight A’s)  106 TH CONGRESS/REPUBLICANS  Block grant approach, flexible spending  BUSH  Pushed for local flexibility in federal dollar spending in campaign  GREGG/CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS pushed for larger block grants (+vouchers, which never made it into NCLB)

7. Thank you!