The development of the horse and buggy was a necessary first step toward the development of the automobile; in fact, the first cars were built by putting engines on buggies. So it is with school accountability. The failure of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to measure school performance is well known among researchers and, to some degree, among…

The U.S. Department of Education has not yet published an official guidance document for using NAEP achievement level scores to confirm state testing results. A review of the literature, however, identified four principles that inform the valid use of NAEP scores in a confirming analysis. The principles address the appropriate NAEP statistics to…