Education - No Child Left Behind

In January 2002 President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind act (NCLB; PL 107-110), which was intended to improve America's public school system and provide educational choice, especially for minority families. The law mandated that all public-school students be proficient in reading and math by 2014, with progress measured by the administration of annual standardized tests. In addition, all subgroups—those with certain racial backgrounds, limited English proficiency, disabilities, or low-income—must meet the same performance standards as the rest of the school. Failure to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) would result in escalating sanctions against the school, including the payment of transportation costs for students who wish to transfer to a better-performing school, extra tutoring for low-income students, the replacement of the school staff, and potentially the conversion of the school to a charter school or even turning to a private company to operate the school.

Although No Child Left Behind was passed with bipartisan support, it very quickly found a number of critics, including those who charged that the mandate was underfinanced by the Bush administration. More important,

TABLE 7.12
Percentage of charter and public school students in segregated minority schools, by race/ethnicity, 2000–01

	Charter		Public
	50–100% Minority	90–100% Minority	50–100% Minority	90–100% Minority
White	17	2	13	1
Black	89	70	71	34
Latino	78	42	77	37
Asian	57	21	56	14
Native American	65	45	47	19
SOURCE: Erica Frankenberg and Chungmei Lee, "Table 3. Percentage of Charter and Public School Students in Segregated Minority Schools, by Race/Ethnicity, 2000–01," in Charter Schools and Race: A Lost Opportunity for Integrated Education, The Civil Rights Project, Harvard University, July 2003 [Online] http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/deseg/Charter_Schools03.pdf [accessed March 11, 2004]

they considered the law inflexible and so flawed that it actually undercut the very goals it sought to achieve. Some questioned the reliance on high-stakes standardized tests, which forced schools to spend a considerable amount of time preparing students to take the tests, an effort that produced no lasting educational benefit and required a reallocation of resources. In many cases, gifted students' programs were cut back. Because low-income, minority gifted students lacked the options of their white counterparts, they were left to languish in classes that failed to stimulate them. Moreover, because of the strict testing requirements, many schools that were regarded as successful by almost all objective measures found themselves designated as failed schools. In some cases a school failed to meet its AYP goal simply because two or three students in a subgroup failed to take a standardized test. In January 2004 a study conducted by the Center on Education Policy determined that about 26,000 of America's 91,400 public schools were on probation.

A further problem was that minority students who attended schools that were unquestionably substandard found that even if by law they had the right to transfer to another school, there were few places to go. In Chicago, for instance, 19,000 students in 2003 asked for a transfer to high performing schools, but there were only 1,000 slots. However well intentioned, NCLB was already proving difficult to implement, demonstrating once again that there were no easy answers to improving America's educational system, especially for minority and low-income students.

In response to such criticisms, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige wrote in March 2004, "Although there is a great deal of hand-wringing in certain circles concerning the impact that the law is having, it is undeniable that in the two years since enactment, NCLB is having what I consider a transformative impact on our public education system.… For the first time in history, every state has an approved accountability plan to ensure academic proficiency for every child. Achievement gaps are being identified and addressed. The success of schools is now being measured on the academic achievement of all students so that children who need help aren't hidden in averages. Under-performing schools are getting the assistance needed to improve. In other words, in the two years since the bill was passed by Congress and signed by President Bush, we have begun to see critical movement in the public education system to address these important issues."