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The School Board’s Impact on Student Learning

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School Boards in America

Abstract

Under the guise of democracy, each state is free to set standards for its students and those standards may be as low as the state wishes. The federal government does not dictate standards for learning. The No Child Left Behind law, enacted at the beginning of this century, required public school students to meet state standards, but the fact that some states called for low standards got insufficient attention. There was nothing to prevent an individual local school board from lifting its standards above those in the rest of the state, but scant incentive to do so given that its schools might face sanctions for not meeting the higher standards.

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Notes

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© 2010 Gene I. Maeroff

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Maeroff, G.I. (2010). The School Board’s Impact on Student Learning. In: School Boards in America. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230117495_2

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