CAN NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND CLOSE THE GAPS IN PASS RATES ON STANDARDIZED TESTS?

No Child Left Behind is the most recent federal legislation aimed at eliminating perceived achievement gaps across sociodemographic groups of students in the United States. This article quantifies the degree to which the worst-performing schools can be expected to narrow these gaps by increasing spending to purchase inputs according to better-performing schools. Using data on elementary schools in Illinois, the authors find that 30–50 % of the gap is due to uncontrollable school characteristics, such as the racial composition of students. Characteristics that schools can control, such as hiring more teachers, account for 10–25 % of the gap. (JEL I21, I22, I23