The No Child Left Behind Act had a positive agenda-setting function on this urban middle school, forcing it to re-examine the strategies it was employing to improve student achievement. Changes or adjustments, in some part attributable to NCLB, were found in the manner in which teachers were assigned, professional development implemented, data utilized, and parent involvement focused. Staff perceived several of these changes as potentially important in theory to improving student achievement, although they saw substantial barriers, no discernable improvement in achievement was realized across the years studied.
At the same time, the study found that NCLB had some negative consequences for the school. These included consequences such as: narrowing the curriculum due to the law's math and reading emphasis; reducing the availability of Title funds as a result of mandatory set asides and student choice; failing to recognized that HQT, while important, is not the only teacher quality that matters in advancing student performance; and hindering some on-going relationships between the school and families and among staff. Finally, the study questions as they applied to the fairness of NCLB to urban schools since their diversity multiplies the number of AYP targets that must be met, and heightens the difficulty of avoiding school improvement status and the sanctions that accompany it.
The study employed a case study methodology. The triangulated and analyzed data included federal and state laws, state and local archival records and transcribed key-informant interviews of more than a dozen central office personnel and teachers of the urban middle school engaged in implementing the NCLB in this case study.