Paul Peterson and Martin West, editors, The Brookings Institution 2003
Paul Peterson and Martin West edited this 338-page Brookings collection of essays, based on a June 2002 Harvard conference. It's not an appraisal of NCLB but an examination of the issues that NCLB deals with under the headings of school and student accountability, plus several solid chapters on the politics of enacting NCLB in 2001. It introduces the concept of "soft accountability" (low standards and few penalties), suggests that this is apt to be the dominant form in the United States in years to come--NCLB has harder features with respect to schools but practically none that bear on individual students or educators--yet the editors judge that "even partial measures . . . may have a positive effect on American education." The authors of these 13 chapters include many celebrated scholars and analysts. The essays themselves are a blend of case studies and big-picture analyses. Especially worth the price of admission are Frederick M. Hess on state-level high-stakes accountability, Andrew Rudalevige on the politics of NCLB, and Ludger Woessmann on international evidence regarding the effects of exit exams on student achievement. A nice addition to the scholarly literature on accountability. The ISBN is 0815770294 and you can get additional information at http://bookstore.brookings.edu/book_details.asp?product percent5Fid=11938.
