Using Federal Law to Prescribe Pedagogy: Lessons Learned from the Scientifically-Based Research Requirements of No Child Left Behind

Abstract:     
Recent data on national student achievement under the Reading First program has tentatively established it as the most successful federal academic program in the existence of federal education law. Reading First is an early reading intervention program with rigid curricular and accountability provisions and is the centerpiece of the No Child Left Behind Act - the most far-reaching federal encroachment on state and local control of education in our nation's history. In implementing the Reading First statute, U.S. Department of Education officials are alleged to have violated statutory provisions that prohibit Department officials from influencing state and local choice of curricular programs. These allegations have ignited a heated political battle over the Department's appropriate role in administering grants. When the No Child Left Behind statute comes up for reauthorization in September 2007, Congress will face a turning point in federal education law and policy as it determines the extent to which the Department will be able to enforce increasingly prescriptive curricular statutory requirements.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 54

Keywords: education, No Child Left Behind, scientifically based research, government, policy, education law

Accepted Paper Series