Evaluating the interpretations, uses, and consequences of Arizona's school achievement profile results

Abstract

The No Child Left Behind Act poses new challenges in education as all states are required to develop valid and reliable accountability systems for determining whether schools make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) toward improving academic achievement, which will be determined through the use of standards-based assessments. New federal policy requirements and short time lines have forced states to become creative in developing methods for determining AYP in order to comply with the new requirements. Currently, most states do not have the necessary assessment instruments or the data that are needed to conduct empirical studies to justify the uses and consequences that are associated with the state accountability results. The lack of necessary data and empirical studies has created concerns for the possibilities of misuses and consequences that may later be attributed to misinterpretations and limitations in current state accountability systems. The study is an evaluation of the interpretations, uses, and consequences that exist as a result of Arizona's educational accountability system. The school achievement profiles were determined through the use of results obtained from the Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards assessments. The school achievement profile results were also used to justify consequences for schools and options for parents. A mixed within subjects factorial design is used to analyze the relationship between the AIMS performance levels and the levels of school achievement. Reading, writing, and mathematics are the three content areas analyzed.