Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

No Child Left Behind Act Of 2001: An Overview, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, the cornerstone of the Bush Administration’s plan to reform K-12 education, strengthens significantly the federal role in education through sweeping reforms to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The stated legislative intent of the NCLB Act is “to close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind” (PL-107-110 [20 U.S.C. §6301, et seq.], 2001). Key provisions of the measure, for both Title I and non-Title I schools, are as follows: • accountability for education results through annual standardized testing and through additional standards …

Understanding Adequate Yearly Progress, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates that all states develop an accountability system that measures student achievement every year. The method states must use to measure achievement is Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). States must agree to bring all students to proficient academic performance levels in reading and math by 2014 in order to continue receiving Title I funds, a federal funding program that commits $12 billion per year to help lower-income children. In Arkansas, the Arkansas Comprehensive Testing Assessment and Accountability Program (ACTAAP) serves as the basis for determining AYP and incorporates the mandates of NCLB.1 According to a 2004 …

Placing Arkansas School Funding Data In The National Context, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In November 2002, the Arkansas Supreme Court found the Arkansas school funding system to be unconstitutional. The decade long court battle, Lake View v Huckabee, concluded when the Supreme Court determined that the state needed to develop a new system to provide a “general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools equally available to all" as called for by the Arkansas Constitution (Article 14, § 1). Arkansas, however, is not alone in being taken to court over the equity and adequacy of its school funding system. Since 1960, over 40 states’ educational funding systems have been legally challenged. Since …

Effective School Reform, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

At the forefront of education research and policy agendas is an effort to ensure that all children, especially those in low performing, high-poverty schools, get a quality education. The question of which programs and strategies are most effective in reforming K-12 education is complex. School administrators and policymakers throughout the nation are seeking strategies that will help all students to achieve mastery of basic grade-level academic skills as measured by standardized tests. This brief summarizes current research on the characteristics of effective schools and effective teachers. Also, we highlight several comprehensive school reform models with evidence of effectiveness in improving …

Special Masters’ Report, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The final ruling in the 1992 Lake View School District case was upheld by the State Supreme Court in November 2002 in a decision known as “Lake View III.” The ruling found that the school system for Arkansas failed to meet the mandate in the Arkansas Constitution requiring that the State provide a “general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools equally available to all" (Article 14, § 1) and required that the legislature develop remedies by January 1, 2004. The Arkansas General Assembly convened in a Special Session from December 8, 2003 to February 6, 2004 to address …

Does Size Matter? School Consolidation Policy Issues In Arkansas, Joshua H. Barnett, Gary W. Ritter, Christopher J. Lucas

Arkansas Education Reports

Providing a reasonable education for all students in Arkansas is a legal responsibility explicitly mandated by the state’s constitution. Consistent with the long-standing American tradition of “grassroots” control of education, public schools in all states are funded and managed first and foremost at the local level. The federal government can and does enact legislation with which schools must conform. Directly or indirectly, federal mandates provide significant amounts of monies to support particular types of school services and programming. But ultimate responsibility for financing and operating schools devolves on state government. In Arkansas, it has been held, the state must provide …

Alternative Education: A Continued Examination Of How States Are Addressing Alternative Education In Their Schools, Les Carnine, Joshua H. Barnett

Arkansas Education Reports

In an attempt to understand the current preparation level of Arkansas for the Leave No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002, the current project conducts a preliminary literature and web search to record what other states have done and are doing to prepare for NCLB. A brief synopsis of the history of alternative policies is also included. Results indicate that of the twelve states examined, most states are following a similar pattern with regard to preparing for their “at risk” students and passing similar alternative education policies. Three common characteristics found across the states: defining what alternative education is …

Defining Educational Adequacy, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In his 2001 ruling of the Lake View case, Judge Kilgore ordered, “an adequacy study is necessary and must be conducted forthwith.” In November 2002, the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling and mandated that the General Assembly begin an “adequacy study.” Consequently, Act 94 of 2003 created the Arkansas Joint Legislative Committee on Educational Adequacy, which was given primary responsibility for fulfilling the Court’s mandate. The Committee contracted with the national consulting firm of Lawrence O. Picus and Associates to conduct a statewide adequacy study and report the findings to the Committee in the Fall of 2003. …

Understanding The Achievement Gap, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Educators across Arkansas and the nation are sharpening their focus on “achievement gaps,” or those areas in which less-advantaged students perform poorly compared to their more advantaged peers. The No Child Left Behind Act, nationally, and the Lake View case, in Arkansas, are driving state and local education policymakers to address these achievement gaps to ensure that all student subgroups perform at high standards. Reducing these achievement gaps can have myriad social benefits, not the least of which is reducing racial inequality in educational achievement and future inequality in employment and earnings.

School Consolidation: Making Sense Of The Consolidation Debate, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Much scholarly and public debate has centered on whether consolidation of small schools is positive, negative, or neutral for student academic achievement, student social development, and funding efficiency. In an attempt to derive lessons from the research on this issue, we investigated evidence related to: (1) school district consolidation and school size, and (2) spending and academic performance data for schools and districts in Arkansas.

Reflection Moderation In The U.S. Senate On Economics, Social, And Foreign Policy, Brian E. Russell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates reelection moderation in the U.S. Senate on economic, social, and foreign policy between 1983 and 1994. I test 3 hypotheses based on the assumption that senators moderate their voting records when seeking reelection to appeal to the median voter. My hypotheses are: (1) Both groups of senators will moderate on economic policy, but a larger percentage of Democrats will moderate than Republicans (2) A majority of Democratic senators will moderate on social policy, but only a small percentage of Republicans will moderate. (3) Less than a majority of both groups of senators will moderate on foreign policy, …

Affirmative Action Policy Today: Its Effectiveness As Examined In The United States Department Of Commerce, Louritha Green

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to go where you want, do as you desire, choose the leaders you please. you do not take a person who for years has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "You are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe you have been completely fair. (Graham, 182).

These words of President Lyndon Baines Johnson epitomize the foundation on which affirmative action programs were …

Small Groups And Political Influence: A Case Study, Rhonda Q. Hayes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In early civics lessons Americans are taught that theirs is a system of participatory government, that one person's vote does have meaning, and that by making views known to representatives they will be acted upon. They are taught about the governmental process, the steps involved in legislation, the function of the judicial and executive branches, and the means of political participation. Seemingly, they are given a working knowledge of government in action. What they are not made aware of during these lessons is that there are systems within the system and certain unwritten rules which must be followed in order …

Contributing Factors To The Existence Of Right-To-Work Laws In Two Southern States, Timothy A. Bledsoe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Providing explanations of why governments or political systems adopt the public policies they do is and has been a goal of political science for some time. The purpose of this paper is to investigate one specific policy out-come -- so called "right-to- work" laws -- in the context of the political environment provided by two Southern states: Arkansas and Louisiana.1 Specifically, an effort will be made to determine what environmental factors have tended to encourage the adoption of right-to-work laws and how the proponents and opponents of such laws have attempted to influence their passage or repeal.

National Trends In The Public Care Of Dependent Children 1900-1935, Foy Lisenby

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Long-Term Outcomes Of Low-Achieving Third Grade Readers, Emily Jordan, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

Research shows that students who demonstrate low reading achievement in 3rd grade have trouble catching back up to grade level and being successful in school, compared to their peers who demonstrate early proficiency (Fiester 2010; Hernandez 2011; Juel 1988). This report seeks to investigate what happens to Arkansas public school students who demonstrate low achievement in reading in 3rd grade. Reading scores from three cohorts of students are followed from 3rd grade until high school, beginning with data from the 2008-09 school year and continuing through 2016-17.