No Child Left Behind Study Makes Headlines

Nearly a decade after the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that NCLB has negatively impacted the teaching profession by eroding job satisfaction and work commitment.  Yet, a recent study co-authored by James R. Harrington, an assistant professor of public affairs at UT Dallas,  has challenged conventional wisdom on NCLB.

The article, with Jason A. Grissom of Vanderbilt University and Sean Nicholson-Crotty of Indiana University as lead authors, was published recently in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.

Using four waves of the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey, they find evidence that the law has negatively affected perceptions of teacher cooperation but positively affected feelings of classroom control and administrator support. Overall, they find little evidence that teacher job satisfaction or commitment has changed in response to NCLB.

The findings have made headlines in numerous mainstream publications, including the Huffington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Atlantic.