No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

NCLB is the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that funds the majority of federal K-12 education, including American Indian education, teacher training, Head Start, early literacy, school libraries, bilingual education, technology, and school safety, as well as, of course, Title I, which remains at the center of the legislation. In 2003, Title I gave $11.7 billion to schools serving low-income children, 64% of whom are students of color, in approximately 47,000 (about half of all) American public schools.

Although federal oversight of education has been in place since the Sputnik era, NCLB represents a dramatic increase in federal control over local educational decision making. While previous versions of the ESEA focused on fiscal accountability, NCLB demands accountability for outcomes, expressed as student achievement, for continued federal funding. The demands of NCLB directly affect the nature of [Page 280]evaluation in education by specifying how the quality of schools will be judged (for example, by specifying educational resources such as teacher qualification, parental involvement, and so on), what the indicators will be (mandatory statewide standardized student assessment and participation in NAEP), and what the standards will be (the key standard being demonstration of annual yearly progress by every subset of students).

Although NCLB had bipartisan support, it is highly controversial legislation because it amounts to an unfunded mandate for states, exercises unprecedented federal control over local educational decision making, advocates evaluation practices that are not consistent with professional standards, and contains “remedies” (such as transfers out of “failing schools”) that are not workable.