NAGC has a report "High Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB" http://www.nagc.org/uploadedFiles/News_Room/NAGC_Advocacy_in_the_News/Fordham.pdf on this issue. On the NAEP, from 2000 to 2007, students at the 10th percentile (near the bottom) made larger gains than students at the 90th percentile, but one ought to look at the trend lines of the 10th and 90th percentiles before the NCLB era before drawing even provisional conclusions.

I have written about the achievement gap in other threads.


"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." - George Orwell