Is the High School–College Pipeline Working or Broken Under the No Child Left Behind Accountability System?

• In Event: 70.066 - Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: 70.066-14 - High School Dropout: Issues and Policies

Abstract

This study employs a comparative interrupted time-series design to explore the impact of the NCLB accountability policy on high school graduation and college enrollment outcomes. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to track individual states’ patterns of growth during 1991-2010 period and to examine interstate variations. This analysis finds that there were patterns of positive changes after NCLB in high school graduation and college enrollment across the states. In spite of these overall positive changes, NCLB high-stakes school accountability did neither improve nor hurt high school graduation and college enrollment outcomes. The results of NCLB policy evaluation raise the need for an alternative model of high school accountability for improving the high school-college pipeline, giving implications for the NCLB’s reauthorization.

Authors

• Jaekyung Lee, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Keqiao Liu, University at Buffalo - SUNY