The 2000s were defined by high-stakes standardized testing, rigid teacher evaluations and other federal accountability standards that researchers say had positive effects on math achievement.
"By no means were these policies perfect or even sufficient," said Brian Jacob, a University of Michigan professor of education policy and of economics. But, he added, "focused attention gave clear targets and provided some incentives." His research suggests schools saw increased funding during this period.
Since then, states have been given more flexibility in setting their own accountability metrics. Schools have become increasingly focused on issues including mental health, attendance and digital devices.
"It may be schools just need to focus on some of these other issues before they're going to have the bandwidth to get back to kind of measuring student learning," Jacob said.
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