In the Media: Forcing Schools to Hit the ‘Reset’ Button

28 October 2015 4:20PM

As Congress attempts to overhaul No Child Left Behind (NCLB), a paper co-written by alumnus Tom Ahn (Ph.D. ’03) and former Duke professor Jacob Vigdor is one that could help lawmakers understand what is and isn’t working, according to NPR.

While at Duke, Ahn studied the impact of federal accountability sanctions on struggling schools in North Carolina. Under NCLB, low-performing schools could be forced to allow students to transfer, offer supplemental education services, or restructure.

“These sanctions start stacking up and, at the end of the day, they don’t help the schools improve,” said Ahn, who now teaches at the University of Kentucky.

Despite being the “most-feared sanction,” restructuring proved — more than anything else — to consistently improve student test scores and teacher morale.

Read the full article on NPR.