An investigation of standards-based education under the auspices of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001: A case study of one small rural school district

Over the past forty years education in America has been in a reform mode. The latest reform has come in the form of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). NCLB has dictated standards to all schools in the nation. While many schools have joined the reform movement, few have made the systemic changes necessary to sustain achievement. A particular concern among reformers is the effect of standards reform on the urban and/or rural poor (Diegmueller, 1995).; This dissertation examines one rural school district's efforts to develop a standards-based education program. This school meets the federal criteria for both poor and rural having 100% of its students qualifying for the free and reduced lunch program. In addition, over 30% of the student population comes to school without knowledge of the English language. In spite of these apparent disadvantages, the school has achieved success as exhibited by a growth of over 100 points as measured by the California Academic Performance Index (API).; A qualitative, descriptive-analytic case study methodology was employed to provide an in-depth investigation of the school site's implementation of fiduciary and curricular matters. The study looked at three questions: (a) how human resources were allocated (b) how financial and personnel decisions were made and (c) could the school's success be replicated.; Three main themes which pointed to reasons for the school's success emerged in answer to the above questions. First, all of the school's resources focused on student achievement. Second, most curricular decisions were made in a collaborative manner. Finally, all decisions were based on data.; Interestingly, and more importantly, two subjective motifs were also revealed. The primary finding from this study is that the leader's flexibility in decision making throughout the school's transformation was the single most significant contributor to the school's academic success. Secondly, the school's success was predicated upon a clear and unwavering vision of student achievement.