The NRC report claims that the gain in student outcomes as a result of NCLB is small and, given the ambitious program initiated by the U.S. government to improve significantly student outcomes by 2014, the system is set to fail. Test-based incentive programs, as designed and implemented in the programs that have been carefully studied, have not increased student achievement enough to bring the United States close to the levels of the highest achieving countries. When evaluated using relevant low-stakes tests, which are less likely to be inflated by the incentives themselves, the overall effects on achievement tend to be small and are effectively zero for a number of programs.”