Title: Leveraging social innovation in US educational reform: a review of legislation and policy recommendations

Authors: Jill McGinley Yurko; Laurie M. Ayre

Addresses: Department of Education, King's College, 133 N. River Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711, USA ' Department of Education, King's College, 133 N. River Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711, USA

Abstract: President Obama's State of the Union Address in January 2011 included a commitment to re-authorise the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. NCLB had been criticised by education leaders (Berliner, 2009; Noddings, 2007), policymakers and practitioners, while others had noted benefits in its implementation. Critics, hoped that instead of abandoning NCLB, a new administration would make substantial improvements to it. This paper proposes to review major principles of the act, explain some of the benefits and disadvantages of the mandates for accountability as perceived by educational experts, and summarise what is known currently about President Obama's proposals to address accountability in re-authorising ESEA.

Keywords: NCLB; no child left behind; education reform; accountability; high-stakes assessment; ESEA; Elementary and Secondary Education Act; AYP; adequate yearly progress; standardised test scores; elementary education; USA; United States.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSEI.2012.047633

International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2012 Vol.1 No.3, pp.310 - 326

Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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