No Child Left Behind

Key Elements of Nclb

NCLB embodies four key principles: stronger accountability for results; greater flexibility for states, school districts, and schools in the use of federal funds; more choices for parents of children from disadvantaged backgrounds; and an emphasis on teaching methods that have been demonstrated to work. [Page 700]The act also places an increased emphasis on reading, especially for young children; enhancing the quality of our teachers; and ensuring that all children in American schools learn English. In keeping with these principles, NCLB affects virtually every program authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, ranging from Title I and efforts to improve teacher quality to initiatives for limited-English-proficient (LEP) students and safe and drug-free schools.

Accountability and Assessment

Accountability for school improvement is a central theme of federal and state policies. NCLB sets demanding accountability standards for schools, school districts, and states, including new state testing requirements designed to improve education. For example, the law requires that states develop both content standards in reading and mathematics and tests that are linked to the standards for Grades 3 through 8, with science standards and assessment to follow. States must identify adequate yearly progress (AYP) objectives and disaggregate test results for all students and subgroups of students based on socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, English language proficiency, and disability. Moreover, the law mandates that 100% of students must score at the proficient level on state tests by 2014. Furthermore, NCLB requires states to participate every other year in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading and mathematics.

NCLB requires the state to implement a single accountability system to ensure that all students make adequate yearly progress toward meeting the state's student academic achievement standards. Adequate yearly progress (AYP) must include the following components:

• A timeline for making AYP that ensures that all students in all student groups will meet or exceed the state's proficient level of achievement no later than 2013–2014
• Separate starting points based on 2001–2002 data in reading/language arts and mathematics for measuring the percentage of students meeting or exceeding the state's proficient level of academic achievement
• Intermediate goals that increase in equal increments over the period covered by the timeline, with the first incremental increase to take effect not later than the 2004–2005 school year.
• Annual measurable objectives that identify a minimum percentage of students that must meet or exceed the proficient level of academic achievement and ensure that all students meet or exceed this level within the established timeline.
• Other academic indicators, one of which must be graduation rate for public high schools and at least one academic indicator for elementary schools and at least one academic indicator for middle schools. These may include, but are not limited to:
  • grade-to-grade retention rates
  • attendance rates
  • percentage of students completing gifted and talented, advanced placement, and college preparatory courses

NCLB requires that economically disadvantaged students, major racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities, and students with limited English proficiency be included as student groups for determining AYP for schools, school districts, and the state. NCLB requires 95% of each student group participate in the state's academic assessment in order for a school, school district, or the state to make AYP.

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