낙오학생방지법(NCLB)의 `과학 기반(scientifically based)`에서 모든 학생의 성공을 위한 법(ESSA)의 `근거 기반(evidence based)`으로의 변화 - 개념과 관련 쟁점의 이해

The Change from NCLB`s Scientifically Based to ESSA`s Evidence Based - Concepts and Issues

2000년대 이후 학생 학업 성취도와 교육 책무성은 우리나라를 포함하여 여러 국가에서 중요한 주제로 다루어져왔다. 미국 역시 교육의 전반적인 수준 향상을 위해 책무성, 선택, 유연성 및 교육의 질에 역점을 두는 NCLB를 2002년 입법하였다. 인과관계의 도출을 강조하는 `과학 기반 연구`는 NCLB의 구현에 있어 중요한 개념이나, 이의 적용에 있어 많은 논란을 낳았다. 2015년 ESSA가 입법되며 학생 성과와 통계적으로 유의한 개선 효과를 조건으로 하는 `근거 기반`의 개념을 제시하였다. 본 연구는 NCLB의 `과학 기반`의 개념과 교육책무성 논리를 실증주의적 관점에서 살펴보고, 이의 적용에서 발생한 문제들을 알아본다. 이와 함께 ESSA의 `근거 기반`의 조건을 이해해보고, 우리 교육법에의 함의를 찾아본다.

In recent decades, student achievement, educational accountability, and educational quality have become important topics in every part of the world, including Korea. In the United States, these issues led to the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act, which emphasized accountability, choice, and flexibility. In actualizing and implementing these core concepts of the Act, scientifically based research, which required experiment design or quasi-experiment design to demonstrate causal relationships, played a significant role. However, in applying this notion to the implementation of the logic of educational accountability of NCLB, several issues were raised. So to address these problems, in December 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act was enacted. It introduced the notion of evidence based, which put more emphasis on student outcomes and statistically significant improvement effect. This study attempts to understand the meaning of scientifically based as used in the NCLB Act from the perspective of positivism and to explore the issues created in the application of the definition scientifically based . The study also reviews the definition of evidence-based of ESSA, in comparison to the definition of scientifically based of NCLB. This analysis suggests that in NCLB, the concept of scientifically based research and the logic of educational accountability appear to be based on positivism. And the definition of evidence-based of ESSA appears to maintain the positivistic basis yet to be structured in a way that it can allow more flexibility and acknowledge difference than did the definition of scientifically based of NCLB. This change from NCLB`s scientifically based to ESSA`s evidence based could provide important implications for Korean education laws and policies.