Date of Award
2008
Access Restriction
Campus Access only Dissertations
Degree Name
Doctorate in Education
Department
Education
School or College
School of Education
First Advisor
Yvette V. Lapayese
Second Advisor
Emily Arms
Third Advisor
Mary K. McCulllough
Abstract
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (2002) is the most significant piece of federal education legislation since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965. The policy changes made through NCLB, though, did not emerge from a vacuum: NCLB is a product of our times, an evolved cousin of previous policy texts that have influenced its creation and implenetation.
This study seeks to understand the historical antecedents to NCLB, the political intent behind NCLB, and the effect of this legislation on students of low socioeconomic status. Using a historical political analysis of policy texts, secondary artifacts, and narrative analysis of policy activity, this study discusses the historical foundations for NCLB, the intersection of NCLB and A Nation at Risk, and their effects upon students of low socioeconomic status. Finally, this study posits recommendations for enacting socially just, policy-based education reform in the United States.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Bryan Michael, "The Miseducation of the Underclass: A Historical Political Analysis of No Child Left Behind" (2008). LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations. 553.
https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/etd/553
