NCLB ("Nickelby") or No Child Left Behind was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002 and was meant to guarantee accountability, provide freedom for communities and school districts and more choices for parents.
Due for re-authorization this year it is unlikely to be re-authorized without some significant changes. Sanctions (withdrawal of Federal Funding, closing low performing schools without funding alternatives, permitting children to leave neighborhood schools for schools some distance with better performance) were considered punitive without having the desired effect of improving overall performance. Another criticism has been that high stakes testing has replaced effective instruction as the focus of educational programming.
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) increases from year to year under the current law, which means that schools who failed to make AYP in one year are often that much more behind in the following year. NCLB also requires that a larger percentage of special education students move from performing at the basic level to performing at the proficient level.
NCLB, in it's last reauthorization, permitted up to 3% of children all children to take an alternate assessment based on their level of disability. Many children reading 2 or 3 years below grade level are required to take the appropriate grade level assessments.
Another problem with the existing legislation is that each state develops it's own test. Ironically, the states whose assessment most closely mirrors the results of their students on the NAEP do not necessarily have the largest percentage of proficient students at the 8th and 11th grade, which reflects the dumbing down of some state assessments, especially in states in the southern tier of the United States.
