Not exactly breaking news: Teachers believe their classroom autonomy suffered during the No Child Left behind era. According to just-released federal data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), educators reported less classroom autonomy in school year 2011-12 compared to 2003-04. That teachers felt their independence wane during a decade marked by standardization and high-stakes testing won’t come as a surprise to most educators, but having real data (a nationally representative sample of more than 37,000 American public school elementary and secondary teachers) to support this widespread belief is nonetheless significant.
