The document summarizes a research study that investigated the effects of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal education policy on civic engagement. The study used surveys to measure perceptions of and behaviors related to civic engagement among graduate students and their parents who were involved with NCLB. Descriptive statistical analysis found correlations between NCLB participation and some measures of civic engagement. However, many relationships were not significant. Further research is needed with a larger, more representative sample and additional statistical analysis to better understand the effects of NCLB on civic engagement.

1. Seth M. Porter
Capstone Defense

2. • Federal Education Policy Overview
• Policy Feedback Theory
• Education Policy & Policy Feedback Theory
• Policy Feedback & NCLB
• Civic Engagement
• Research Methodology
• Results
• Conclusion & Further Research

3. Federal education policy Post WWII has grown immensely. The policies have evolved from equity
driven to accountability and assessment driven. The policies themselves have had a marked effect
on the civic engagement of the target groups. There has been much research on federal
education policy and the political feedback effects on the great legislations of the 20th century,
such as the G.I. Bill, NDEA, ESEA, and HEA, but very little on the paternal, accountability focused
policies of the 21st century through the Policy Feedback Theory. The research project
investigates paternalistic federal education policy, specifically No Child Left
Behind, and its effects on the civic engagement of graduate students at the
University of Alabama in Huntsville. The design takes a holistic look at federal
education policy through the 20th and 21st century, and measures the effect on civic engagement
through survey methodology and investigates the correlation between the paternal policy of No
Child Left Behind and the target groups civic engagement, and builds upon previous research to
add to the literature on federal education policy and civic life. The statistical modeling is
descriptive statistical analysis and bivariate analysis of multiple dependent variables that warrant
further statistical analysis.

4. G.I. Bill
NDEA
Great Society ESEA
HEA
Bayh-Dole Act & A
Nation at Risk
Equity>Accountability
Charlottesville 1989
NCLB

5. Policy
Created
Politics
Changes
Politics
Future
Policy

6. Federal Education
Policy & Policy
Feedback Theory
Loss, Mettler & Soss
The Big Three
Policies
Positive Feedback
Effects
Civic Engagement

7. Accountability
Based Federal
Education Policy
Rhodes &
NCLB
Negative
Feedback Effects
Less Civic
Engagement
among target
group

8. Civic
Engagement
• Essentially civic engagement is actively working to affect
communities positively. In doing this it can be a through the
formal political process, individual action, or non-political
groups or processes (Ehrlich 2003).
Measurements
• In the classic study by Verba, Nie, and Kim (1979) the most
important variables are voting, contacting elected officials,
political discussion, and volunteering.
Survey Metrics
• Voting, volunteering, discussing politics, confidence in
government, public schools, and federal education policies

9. Survey Design
• Survey was designed off the metrics from Verba, Nie, and Kim (1979) and
Volunteering in America.
• The survey questions were analyzed at length to control for bias, double barreled
questions, neutral language, simple language
VAS
• Rating scale is consistent and coherent. The design is a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS).
VAS is a more powerful consistent design than Likert.
• 111 respondents. 106 data sets used.
Instrumentation
• IRB Approval.
• Administered through UAH graduate school.
• Administered through Qualtrics.
• Designed with no Ballot stuffing, no personal data collected-including I.P. Addresses

11. 1.
• Descriptive Statistical Analysis
• Two DV subgroups:
Perception & Behavior
2.
• Bivariate Analysis
• Correlation

12. Perception Variable Dependent Variable Figure 1.1
Perception DV1 How important would you say civic engagement is to you?
Perception DV2 How much confidence do you have your children's public schools? If you do not have children or if
they don’t attend public schools, please skip question.
Perception DV3 How much confidence do you have in the state government in general?
Perception DV4 How much confidence do you have in public schools in general?
Perception DV5 How much confidence do you have in the public schools you attended? If you did not attend public
school please skip.
Perception DV6 How much confidence do you have in public officials?
Perception DV7 How much confidence do you have in the national government in general?
Perception DV8 How much confidence do you have in your local government in general?
Perception DV9 How much confidence do you have in national education policies such as No Child Left Behind?
Perception DV10 To what extent, if any, do you feel that your experience with the No Child left Behind law changed
your views about the national government?
Perception DV11 To what extent, if any, did the national standardized testing policy of No Child Left Behind increase
or decrease your confidence in national government?
Perception DV12 To what extent, if any, did the national standardized testing policy of No Child Left Behind increase
or decrease your confidence in state government?
Perception DV13 To what extent, if any, did the national standardized testing policy of No Child Left Behind increase
or decrease your confidence in local government?
Perception DV14 To what extent, if any, did the national standardized testing policy of No Child Left Behind affect
your attitude, beliefs or opinion toward volunteering?
Perception DV15 To what extent, if any, did the national standardized testing policy of No Child Left Behind increase
or decrease your confidence in public schools?
Perception DV16 To what extent, if any, did the national standardized testing policy of No Child Left Behind increase
or decrease your confidence in public officials?
Perception DV17 To what extent, if any, did the national standardized testing policy of No Child Left Behind affect
your attitude, beliefs or opinion towards voting?
Perception DV18 To what extent, if any, did the national standardized testing policy of No Child Left Behind affect
your attitude, beliefs or opinion toward politics or discussing politics?

13. Behavior Variable Dependent Variable Figure 1.2
Behavior DV1 How often do you volunteer in your community? An example of this could be an activity such as
mentoring youth, serving your community, serving food, fund-raising, and more?
Behavior DV2 How often do you discuss politics with friends?
Behavior DV3 Did you vote in the last presidential election in November 2012?
Behavior DV4 Did you vote in the last congressional election in November 2014?
Behavior DV5 If you had been eligible to vote would you have voted?
Behavior DV6 Have you ever contacted or visited a public official?

14. A few examples

17. Perception Variable P Score Coefficient
Perception DV1 .035 .210*
Perception DV2 — —
Perception DV3 .193 .127
Perception DV4 .044 .196*
Perception DV5 .069 .210
Perception DV6 .011 .246*
Perception DV7 .481 .069
Perception DV8 .058 .185
Perception DV9 .004 .280**
Perception DV10 .380 .096
Perception DV11 .530 .060
Perception DV12 .288 .104
Perception DV13 .064 .181
Perception DV14 .530 .062
Perception DV15 .163 .136
Perception DV16 .046 .195*
Perception DV17 .208 .102
Perception DV18 .053 .195
*=significance level of 0.05 **=significance level of 0.01
Students who took part in NCLB

18. Behavior Variable P Score Coefficient
Behavior DV1 .101 .160
Behavior DV2 .284 -.105
Behavior DV3 .000 1.000**
Behavior DV4 .002 .313**
Behavior DV5 .655 .048
Behavior DV6 .571 .056
*=significance level of 0.05 **=significance level of 0.01

19. Perception Variable P Score Coefficient
Perception DV1 .267 -.111
Perception DV2 .721 -.063
Perception DV3 .592 -.053
Perception DV4 .128 -.149
Perception DV5 .497 -.079
Perception DV6 .320 .097
Perception DV7 .300 -.102
Perception DV8 .207 -.123
Perception DV9 .990 .001
Perception DV10 .630 -.053
Perception DV11 .731 .034
Perception DV12 .036 -.204*
Perception DV13 .682 .040
Perception DV14 .520 .063
Perception DV15 .412 .080
Perception DV16 .732 -.034
Perception DV17 .519 .065
Perception DV18 .865 -.017
*=significance level of 0.05 **=significance level of 0.01
Parents whose children took part in NCLB

20. Behavior Variable P Score Coefficient
Behavior DV1 .111 -.155
Behavior DV2 .645 -.045
Behavior DV3 .993 -.001
Behavior DV4 .363 .092
Behavior DV5 .034 .225*
Behavior DV6 .029 .215*
*=significance level of 0.05 **=significance level of 0.01

21. • Correlation between many of the dependent
variables and program participation.
• However many had no relationship.
• Because of mitigating factors like:
• Individual culture, selection bias, small target group, IRB
limitations, time, and more further research is needed.
– Larger, representative, target group.
– Each dependent variable needs further statistical
analysis: T-test, Multiple Linear regressions.
– More subgroups need to be analyzed.