While No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires all students to be “ proficient” in math and reading by 2014, the precedent-setting 2002 federal law also allows each state to determine its own level of proficiency. It’ s an odd discordance at best. It has led to the bizarre situation in which some states achieve handsome proficiency results by grading their students against low standards, while other states suffer poor proficiency ratings only because they have high standards.
General Audience Articles
Budget Deficits and the Race to the Bottom. In Sheila B. Kamerman and Alfred J. Kahn, Eds.. Report I: Whither American Social Policy?. New York: Cross-National Studies Research Program, Columbia University School of Social Work, 43-63. 1996.
The New Politics of Choice. In Diane Ravitch and Maris Vinovskis, Eds.. Learning from the Past. John Hopkins University Press. 1995.
State Response to Welfare Reform: A Race to the Bottom?. . Urban Institute Welfare Reform Brief, No. 8. 1995.
Who Should Do What? Divided Responsibility in the Federal System. . Brookings Review, 12(3), 6-11. 1995.
An Immodest Proposal. . Daedulus, 121(4). 1992.
Reprinted in The Brookings Review, Winter, 1993, pp. 18-23 and, in abridged form, in Harper's, February, 1993, pp. 23-26.
Tax Cuts, More Spending, and Fiscal Deficits. In Charles Jones, Ed.. The Reagan Legacy. Chatham, New Jersey: Chatham. 1988.