ABSTRACT
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 transformed the movement for school reform from a largely voluntary attempt at improvement to a mandatory top-down program with a focus on tough new accountability measures. The convergence of Bush and Gore on increased spending, standards, accountability, and choice prepared the context for a bipartisan compromise on reauthorization of ESEA, and led to a new federal policy regime in education. The House and Senate versions called for different levels of funding increases but also contained important differences on accountability. Ravitch supported accountability reforms and other conservative and essentialist approaches to education from at least the middle of the 1980s, and she was a strong supporter of NCLB until she attended a Fordham Foundation conference examining how the reforms were faring, leading to a sea change in her views. The new federal policy regime gave unprecedented power to the DOE in administering schools, with power to impose requirements, directives, rewards, and punishments.
