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CAN NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND CLOSE THE GAPS IN PASS RATES ON STANDARDIZED TESTS?
Author(s) -
HOERANDNER CLAUS M.,
LEMKE ROBERT J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
contemporary economic policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.454
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1465-7287
pISSN - 1074-3529
DOI - 10.1093/cep/byj008
Subject(s) - legislation , demographic economics , no child left behind , control (management) , racial composition , mathematics education , psychology , economics , political science , sociology , race (biology) , law , accountability , management , gender studies
No Child Left Behind is the most recent federal legislation aimed at eliminating perceived achievement gaps across sociodemographic groups of students in the United States. This article quantifies the degree to which the worst‐performing schools can be expected to narrow these gaps by increasing spending to purchase inputs according to better‐performing schools. Using data on elementary schools in Illinois, the authors find that 30–50% of the gap is due to uncontrollable school characteristics, such as the racial composition of students. Characteristics that schools can control, such as hiring more teachers, account for 10–25% of the gap. (JEL I21 , I22 , I23 )