Parental Involvement Under No Child Left Behind: Accountability Pressure Does Not Increase School Efforts to Involve Parents

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Everyone Implements Reform: Perspectives on Implementation in Schools

Abstract

In this study, I examine how the pressures exerted by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) influence school efforts to involve parents. Drawing on national data, my analysis isolates the effect of accountability pressure on measures of school efforts to involve parents. The study’s findings demonstrate that accountability pressure is ineffective in changing schools’ work to involve parents despite NCLB provisions that require it and the threat of future decreases in student enrollment via school choice under NCLB. I contribute to scholarship on threat perception within organizations by adding to a nascent body of evidence that suggests that school responses to accountability pressure are characterized by a narrow focus on improving student test scores.

Author

• Andrea Prado Tuma, The RAND Corporation