Also Try School Improvement News -02-28-07 Hard Recovery for Failed Schools (Christian Science Monitor) "California is a harbinger of the magnified problems that public schools around the country will face as the last phase of the reform timeline outlined by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) kicks in this year." "But a few states, such as California, put accountability measures into place prior to NCLB. Out of 245 California schools that restructured in 2005-06, just 11 percent met AYP targets, said the new report, released Wednesday by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) in Washington." 02-07 -03-17-07 Support for "No Child Left Behind" May Not Hold (USNews.com) "Today, Bush's signature education law is up for renewal, but Republican loyalty like DeLay's will be harder to come by. Rep. Roy Blunt, the new No. 2 Republican in the House, yesterday joined a group of 57 GOP lawmakers in a revolt. Sens. Mel Martinez and Jon Kyl, the chairs of the Republican National Committee and the Senate Republican Conference, also signed on. Like DeLay, both Blunt and Kyl had supported the law in 2001." 03-07 -04-18-06 "No Child Left Behind" Loophole (CNN News) "An Associated Press computer analysis has found Laquanya is among nearly 2 million children whose scores aren't counted when it comes to meeting the law's requirement that schools track how students of different races perform on standardized tests." 04-06 -05-27-07 How to Fix "No Child Left Behind" (Time.com) "The states have complained bitterly that NCLB imposes its many mandates without the federal funds originally promised to implement them. Providing more money for NCLB is a key goal for the Democrats, who control Congress, and is almost certainly part of their price for reauthorizing the law. A look at some of the more challenging issues:" 05-07 -05-30-07 Alternative for "No Child Left Behind" (Time Magazine) "Most state education officials grumble that the pressure-packed annual tests and rigid adequate yearly progress (AYP) targets engendered by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law are flawed means of measuring student proficiency, raising academic standards, holding schools accountable and fostering learning. But since the penalty for defying the law is loss of federal funds, most treat NCLB's prescriptives like bitter medicine they can't afford to spit out. All, that is, except the iconoclasts who run the public schools in Nebraska." 05-07 -05-30-07 Narrowing the Standards Gap in "No Child Left Behind" (CBS News) "Georgia is not alone, Wallace reports. Mississippi, Tennessee and Oklahoma are among the states in which students scored high on their state tests but significantly lower on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam, according to the non-partisan Hoover Institution." "The problem, say experts, is one word: proficiency." 05-07 -05-30-07 No National Testing Standards "No Child Left Behind" (CBS News) "As much as I've heard and read about "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) — the landmark education bill President Bush signed into law five years ago, I had no idea that every state uses a different test and standard to determine whether its schools are making the required progress under the law." "It is an issue, we learned, that is debated sharply in education circles — with some states accusing others of lowering the bar by using easier tests and lower standards to make their schools look more successful." 05-07 -06-13-06 Harvard Study: Bush Administration Education Goals to Miss Targets (Yahoo News) "U.S. President George W. Bush's signature No Child Left Behind education policy is failing to close racial achievement gaps and will miss its goals by 2014 according to recent trends, a Harvard study said on Wednesday." "It said the policy has had no significant impact on improving reading and math achievement since it was introduced in 2001, contradicting White House claims and potentially adding to concerns over America's academic competitiveness." 06-06 -06-23-05 Military Collecting Data on High School Students (ABC News) "Working with the private marketing firm BeNow, Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., the Pentagon has created a huge database of millions of high school students, aged 16 to 18." "But privacy advocates say it violates a federal law that restricts the government's ability to gather personal information. They say they understand the military's need to recruit but this type of information-gathering goes too far." "A growing number of parents were already upset about the military's recruiting techniques. A little-known provision in the 2002 'No Child Left Behind' education law requires every public school to provide the military with the names, addresses and phone numbers of students." "Last month, Louise Wannier went to her daughter's high school to submit an opt-out letter, which prohibits recruiters from accessing personal information." "She learned today about the new database, which may have much more information on her daughter than she'd ever imagined." 6-05 -12-14-05 House Votes to Cut Education (CBS News) "Lawmakers voted Wednesday to cut federal aid to education for the first time in a decade as the House narrowly passed a spending bill that would freeze or cut back a wide variety of domestic programs." "Programs funded under President Bush's No Child Left Behind education law would face a 4 percent cut, while aid for special education and Title I funding for disadvantaged children would be frozen at last year's levels, assuming the across-the-board cut is imposed." "The 215-213 vote caps a successful drive by Mr. Bush and his GOP allies on Capitol Hill to trim the budgets of most domestic agencies below prior-year levels. And, after years of bundling appropriations bills into omnibus measures, Republicans managed to get the process back on track and pass the 11 annual spending bills as stand-alone measures." 12-05 Papers -08-22-05 Connecticut Sues Against No Child Left Behind Law (ABC News) "The state of Connecticut filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging President Bush's No Child Left Behind school reform law, arguing it is illegal because it requires expensive testing and programs it doesn't pay for." 8-05 Adequate Yearly Progress - Consequences of Failing (Florida Department of Education) Provides a chart for consequences for Florida schools not making AYP. CELD Assessment Requirement in California (California Department of Education) California English Language Development Test (CELDT) is required for "all students with a home language other than English." 7-05 ESEA Title I Allocations for 2005 (U.S. Department of Education) Provides the allocations by state. 7-05 No Child Left Behind - Articles and Guides (Education Commission of the States) Provides issue papers and guides to NCLB. (Uses PDF format.) 12-03 No Child Left Behind - Articles on Issues (Education Commission of the States) Provides articles and summaries of progress. "The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, the revised Elementary and Secondary Education Act, is a potent blend of new requirements, incentives and resources, and it poses significant challenges for states." 12-03 No Child Left Behind - Costs and Benefits (Phi Delta Kappan International - Mathis) "Alas, the promises are far greater than the reality. When the 'historic' federal investments in education are scrutinized, the first-year increases to Title I compensatory funds amount to a mere 0.4% of total education spending. When the much-touted 'flexibility' procedures that NCLB gives to local districts are examined, they allow, at best, a local district to shift around about 4.3% of its already-committed money.3 When the so-called adequate yearly progress provisions of the law are examined, independent reviewers, almost without exception, say the plans are unrealistic.4 Submerged beneath emotional appeals and rhetorical demands, hard questions about costs, the adequacy of resources, and the strength of commitments lie hidden." "Throughout the last century, critics loudly proclaimed the nation's peril owing to the alleged poor condition of the schools. Yet results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that at the end of the century scores in reading and mathematics had leveled off at a 30-year high, dropouts were near all-time lows, and our nation's economic supremacy was unquestioned.5 This is hardly a picture of a "failed" system. But these facts hide the nation's true educational problems." "The greater and more insidious danger, however, is the disparity in achievement within the United States. International test data tell us that we have the greatest inequities between our highest- and lowest-scoring students of any nation.8 In a UNICEF follow-up study, the gap between our average scorers and our low scorers gives the U.S. an abysmal ranking of 21st out of 24 industrialized nations in educational equality.9 While we are getting more productivity than we pay for, the troubling disparities in achievement reflect our disparities in funding." "Providing a 'standards-based' NCLB education for all children will require massive new investments in education spending. Seven of the 10 studies show increases in base cost that are greater than 24%, and of these, six were between 30% and 46%...." "Public spending on K-12 education was $422.7 billion in 2001-02. 27 If we use a broad -- yet easily justified and extremely conservative -- estimate of 20% added costs for the nation as a whole, that translates into a national increase of about $84.5 billion. An estimate of 35% additional costs yields a national increase of $148 billion." "For comparison purposes, the current federal Title I appropriation is $11.3 billion, and the Administration's budget request of $12.3 billion is below the authorized amount of $18 billion in NCLB.28 President Bush said in his weekly radio address of 4 January 2003 that the additional $1 billion was 'more than enough money' and that 'we are insisting that schools use that money wisely.' 29" 12-03 No Child Left Behind - Details of Requirements (CRS issue Brief for Congress - Riddle and Stedman) Describes the requirements each state must follow. (Uses PDF format.) 12-03 No Child Left Behind - Details of Requirements (Education Commission of the States) Describes the requirements each state must follow. (Uses PDF format.) 12-03 No Child Left Behind - ELL Requirements (SchoolsMovingUp.net) "Several NCLB provisions seek to strengthen instruction and accountability for English Language Learners (ELLs). Schools and districts are required to make adequate yearly progress for ELLs as a subgroup. The Act includes a grant program (under Title III) to help school districts provide high-quality language instruction programs for ELLs. That grant program also requires districts to provide professional development to teachers, principals, administrators, and community-based personnel in order to improve the instruction and assessment of ELLs. Title III requires that each state establish English language proficiency standards, define annual measurable achievement objectives (AMAOs) for increasing students level of English proficiency, and hold districts accountable for meeting them." 12-03 No Child Left Behind - ELL Requirements for California (California Curriculum News Report) "Federal and state statutes and court cases have established that there is a dual obligation for serving English learners in our schools. In addition to providing appropriate programs for them to meet grade-level standards in the content areas as is required for all students, there is an additional and unique component necessary for English learners, that is, to develop their English language proficiency. Schools must provide programs for English learners that meet both of these important areas. The dual obligation is reflected in NCLB. Local educational agencies (LEAs) are now held accountable specifically for both the academic progress of English learners and their progress in learning English." 7-05 No Child Left Behind - Progress by State (Education Commission of the States) Provides grid showing progress of each state by requirement of NCLB. Detailed information is available for each criterion for each state. 12-03 No Child Left Behind - Results from 15 School Districts (Center on Education Policy) "What have school districts done during the past year to raise student achievement, en- sure all teachers are highly qualified, provide school choice to children in under-per- forming schools, and meet the other far-reaching requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)? How do districts perceive the Act?" "What effects is it having? To help answer these questions, the Center on Education Policy commissioned case studies of local implementation of NCLB in a geographically diverse set of urban, sub- urban, and rural school districts." 12-03 No Child Left Behind - Rubric for Assessing Compliance (Education Commission of the States) Provides an assessment tool for rating a state's compliance with NCLB. (Uses PDF format.) 12-03 No Child Left Behind - Scientifically Based Research (Education Commission of the States) Defines "scientifically based research" for purposes of the NCLB legislation. Editor's Note: The definition of "scientifically based research" reflects the views of the authors of the legislation but is not necessarily consistent with the views of the most respected and experienced evaluators and researchers in the field of education regarding best practices in research. 12-03 No Child Left Behind - Scientifically Based Research (NoChildLeft.com - McKenzie) "It is now fashionable for federal bureaucrats to cloak their interference in what amounts to pseudoscience." "The identification of so-called effective programs was accomplished by setting up false selection rules, unreasonable criteria and narrow goals. It was the equivalent of blind judging. The rules effectively eliminated many deserving programs from review (and approval) before anyone even considered them. The rules were tilted toward a narrow definition of reading and a narrow definition of research. The effect was to focus in on programs with great results on limited goals. We suddenly face the specter of strong armed imposition of phonics programs, especially upon urban students in poorly performing schools even though there is little evidence that they become better students in the long run." 12-03 No Child Left Behind - State Accountability and Consolidated Plans (Education Commission of the States) Provides plans by state. 12-03 No Child Left Behind - Summary of Requirements (Education Commission of the States) Describes the requirements each state must follow. (Uses PDF format.) 12-03 No Child Left Behind - Teaching Quality (Education Commission of the States) Provides three articles on teaching quality related to NCLB. (Uses PDF format.) 12-03 No Child Left Behind Act (Ed.gov) Provides information from the U.S. Department of Education. 5-05 No Child Left Behind Act (Options-for-Education.org) Describes the program. 6-05 No Child Left Behind Act (Thomas) Provides H.R. 1, new education legislation enacted in January 2002. The Act focuses heavily on improvement of assessment and then, if a school fails to meet standards, alternatives for parents. The official title of the act is "To close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind." No Child Left Behind Act - Resources for Schools (American Association of School Administrators) Provides Web sites to help schools implement best practices. 7-02 Title I Supplemental Education Services (PlatformLearning.com) "Under NCLB, Title I schools that are in their second year of school improvement, in corrective action, or in restructuring, must provide students from low-income families supplemental educational services (SES), such as tutoring, remediation and after-school and summer school programs. Each state must maintain a list of SES approved providers. Local education agencies are required to annually notify parents of eligible children about the availability of services and approved providers." Standards -Classroom Educational Standards by Subject and State (Wappingers Central School District - Hill) Provides math standards and curriculums by state. Also provides work on standards by key national groups. 9-05

Arabic, Chinese-Simple, Chinese-Traditional, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese,   Index, New, Search Engines, Dictionary, Bookstore, Licenses, Email Us, About Us, Link to Us, Sponsorships, or Privacy Policy.