| This study is a legal analysis of the conflicts between the accountability provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. The purpose of the research is to analyze how courts have ruled on these conflicts, to determine why courts ruled as they did, and to predict how these decisions may impact future education policies.;Two cases were studied as the focus of the conflicts between No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. These cases were Doe v. United States Department of Education and Board of Ottawa Township High School District 140. The researcher found that courts are generally reluctant to make decisions on educational policy. The courts tend to interpret the laws relating to educational policy very narrowly.;Recommendations for further study include analyzing how education policy might be amended to account for both students with disabilities and regular education students. Comparing this year's group of 8th graders to next year's groups of 8th graders really does not show any progress and is not a true measurement. Further study on how to implement true measurement to show students' growth over time would do more to improve the educational system.;A second recommendation is further study on the court's ruling that IDEA must yield to NCLB because IDEA is a reauthorization of Acts enacted between 1990 and 2004 and reauthorization of an Act does not make it a new Act. The court stated that IDEA must yield to NCLB because NCLB is the most recent Act. However, NCLB is also a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.;The researcher studied the legislative history of No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. The research included a study of state and federal statutes, court cases, legal briefs, legal reviews, and other related materials. The data from the research followed LaMorte's (2008) format for analyzing court opinions.;A third recommendation is to do a qualitative study on how the conflicts between these two Acts affect practitioners and student achievement. Interviewing and/or surveying regular education teachers, special education teachers, and school leaders would shed light on how these practitioners view these conflicts and how the conflicts may affect student achievement. |
