I posted earlier that the agenda of those who promote NCLB and the accountability movement is the promotion of school vouchers and deemphasis of public schools. There are a number of policy institutes who provide what they term "research reports" to lawmakers and policy makers. These are documents that look like professional reports on the surface, but they actually promote this anti-public school educational approach that includes the institution of school vouchers. One such site you should look at for this kind of deceptive approach is
http://www.amexp.org which is a web site called the Center of the American Experiment. A cursory glance at the web site seems innocent. It is draped patriotic colors, the whole bit. The problem becomes clearer when you start looking at the articles and papers. These people have an obvious agenda they wish to promote, which is not a problem in itself. Personally I think it is a problem when an organization tries to hide its true motives behind what it calls research. There are literally hundreds of these organizations. As educators and administrators we need to be even more vigilant when we look at research reports and data. We might even need to determine what the true agenda of the organization which is providing that data. I'll send everyone an article from the organization I describe above which clearly shows (I think) that those who promote this accountability and NCLB agenda really have other motives.