The successor to No Child Left Behind remains to be shaped, but one change seems certain: School success will depend on whether students’ test scores increase, as opposed to just requiring scores above an adequate yearly progress threshold. Growth modeling approaches appear to allow for this policy shift. And this would likely be an improvement over the AYP approach in the current NCLB. Yet like many new technologies, it’s being oversold.

Welner, K. G. (2008). The Overselling of Growth Modeling. School Administrator, 65(6), p. 6. Available online at http://www.aasa.org/SchoolAdministratorArticle.aspx?id=5118