In a new National Bureau of Economic Research paper, Thomas Dee (Swarthmore) and Brian Jacob (Michigan) discovered a relationship between No Child Left Behind and math achievement.

Our results indicate that NCLB generated statistically significant increases in the average math performance of 4th graders (effect size = 0.22 by 2007) as well as improvements at the lower and top percentiles. There is also evidence of improvements in 8th grade math achievement, particularly among traditionally low-achieving groups and at the lower percentiles. However, we find no evidence that NCLB increased reading achievement in either 4th or 8th grade.

We’ll see a flood of comparable studies in the next ten years, so these initial results may or may not hold up to further research.