Derek Neal and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach released results of a new study of Chicago students, Left Behind By Design: Proficiency Counts and Test-Based Accountability. They say their data indicate that the federal No Child Left Behind Act may leave behind students at the ends of the academic ability spectrum—the least able students and those with special talents and gifts.

The post-reform pattern, in all cases, was consistent: Students in the middle of the pack made the largest test-score gains, compared with students in previous years. The bottom 20 percent of students made the least progress and, in some cases, even lost ground. The top 10 percent of students made either no academic gains or improvements that were smaller than those of students in the middle, depending on the subject matter.

For the least-able students, the situation was only slightly better in the post-1998 reform period. Those students’ scores improved more then, the researchers believe, because the standards had been set at lower levels. They speculated that teachers may be more likely to write off low-achieving students when the likelihood that they will ever meet the achievement target is more distant.

Estimated gains associated with the reform are larger in the middle of the distribution than in the tails.

These researchers argue that educators have weak incentives to devote extra attention to students who are either already proficient or who have little chance of
becoming proficient in the near term.

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