No Child Left Behind and the Reduction of the Achievement Gap: Sociological Perspectives on Federal Educational Policy

This collection presents the first-ever sociological analysis of the No Child Left Behind Act. More importantly, these leading sociologists consider whether NLCB can or will accomplish its major goal: to eliminate the achievement gap by 2014. Based on theoretical and empirical research, the articles examine the history of federal educational policy and place NCLB in a larger sociological and historical context, and take up a number of policy areas affected by the law, including accountability and assessment, curriculum and instruction, teacher quality, parental involvement, school choice and urban education. The book concludes with a discussion of the important contributions of sociological research and sociological analysis to understanding the limits and possibilities of the law to reduce the achievement gap.