Embed or link this publication
Popular Pages
p. 2
.s department u.s department of education rod paige secretary office publ affairs office of public affairs john gibbons director june 2003 this report is in the public domain authorization to reproduce it in whole or in part is granted while permission to reprint this publication is not necessary the citation should be u.s department of education office of the secretary office of public affairs no child left behind a parents guide washington d.c 2003 to order copies of this report write write to ed pubs education publications center u.s department of education p.o box 1398 jessup md 20794-1398 or fax your request to 301 470-1244 or e-mail your request to edpubs@inet.ed.gov e-mail or call in your request toll-free 1-877-433-7827 1-877-4-ed-pubs if 877 service is not yet call available in your area call 1-800-872-5327 1-800-usa-learn those who use a telecommunications device for the deaf tdd or a teletypewriter tty should call 1-800-437-0833 or order online at www.ed.gov/pubs/edpubs.html order online this report is also available on the department s web site at www.nclb.gov/next on request this publication is available in alternate formats such as braille large print audiotape or computer diskette for more information please contact the department s alternate format center at 202 260-9895 or 202 205-8113.[close]
p. 3
the secretary of education washington dc 20202 june 2003 dear parent on january 8 2002 when the no child left behind act became the law of the land we began a new era of education in our nation s history democrats and republicans in congress joined together with president bush in an historic agreement to improve the educational opportunities for every american child accountability local control and flexibility new options for parents and record funding for what works are now the cornerstones of our education system if your child isn t learning you ll know why if your school isn t performing you ll have new options and the school will receive additional help our commitment to you and to all americans is to see every child in america regardless of ethnicity income or background achieve high standards no child left behind puts the focus on instruction and methods that have been proven to work it makes a billion-dollar annual investment to ensure every child learns to read by third grade and it provides the resources for reform and unprecedented flexibility so states and local communities can get the job done everyone at the department of education is working hard in partnership with state and local leaders to implement the reforms of no child left behind we are already seeing great progress from inner cities to sparsely populated rural areas and everywhere in between we are pressing on toward our common goal of making every public school in america a place of high expectations and a place of high achievement this guide is meant to provide you with information about no child left behind it summarizes the main provisions of the law answers common questions and provides information on where you can find additional resources i encourage you to share it with your family friends and neighbors president bush and i believe in the bright hope of your child as we move forward our mission is clear an america where every child will be educated and no child left behind sincerely rod paige our mission is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation.[close]
p. 5
ontents contents introduction and overview no child left behind the law that ushered in a new era what no child left behind does for parents and children why no child left behind is important to america united for results 1 1 1 1 4 5 questions and answers on no child left behind 7 accountability 7 testing 11 reading 15 doing what works 18 teacher quality 20 creating safer schools 22 choice and supplemental educational services 23 charter schools 25 appendixes a where to go for more information 27 b titles of the elementary and secondary education act of 1965 as reauthorized by the no child left behind act of 2001 29 c key sections of title i improving the academic achievement of the disadvantaged pertaining to parent involvement 31 d cited references 37 v[close]
p. 7
ntroduction overvie view introduction and over view no child left behind the law that ushered in a new era the no child left behind act of 2001 no child left behind is a landmark in education reform designed to improve student achievement and change the culture of america s schools president george w bush describes this law as the cornerstone of my administration clearly our children are our future and as president bush has expressed too many of our neediest children are being left behind with passage of no child left behind congress reauthorized the elementary and secondary education act esea the principal federal law affecting education from kindergarten through high school in amending esea the new law represents a sweeping overhaul of federal efforts to support elementary and secondary education in the united states it is built on four common-sense pillars accountability for results an emphasis on doing what works based on scientific research expanded parental options and expanded local control and flexibility what no child left behind does for parents and children supports learning in the early years thereby preventing many learning difficulties that may arise later children who enter school with language skills and pre-reading skills e.g understanding that print reads from left to right and top to bottom are more likely to learn to read well in the early grades and succeed in later years in fact research shows that most reading problems faced by adolescents and adults are the result of problems that could have been prevented through good instruction in their early childhood years snow burns and griffin 1998 it is never too early to start building language skills by talking with and reading to children no child left behind targets resources for early childhood education so that all youngsters get the right start provides more information for parents about their child s progress under no child left behind each state must measure every public school student s progress in reading and math in each of grades 3 through 8 and at least once during grades 10 through 12 by school year 2007-2008 assessments or testing in science will be underway these assessments must be aligned with state academic content and achievement standards they will provide parents with objective data on where their child stands academically 1[close]
p. 8
alerts parents to important information on the performance of their child s school no child left behind requires states and school districts to give parents easyto-read detailed report cards on schools and districts telling them which ones are succeeding and why included in the report cards are student achievement data broken out by race ethnicity gender english language proficiency migrant status disability status and low-income status as well as important information about the professional qualifications of teachers with these provisions no child left behind ensures that parents have important timely information about the schools their children attend whether they are performing well or not for all children regardless of their background gives children and parents a lifeline in this new era of education children will no longer be trapped in the dead end of low-performing schools under no child left behind such schools must use their federal funds to make needed improvements in the event of a school s continued poor performance parents have options to ensure that their children receive the high-quality education to which they are entitled that might mean that children can transfer to higher-performing schools in the area or receive supplemental educational services in the community such as tutoring after-school programs or remedial classes improves teaching and learning by providing better information to teachers and principals annual tests to measure children s progress provide teachers with independent information about each child s strengths and weaknesses with this knowledge teachers can craft lessons to make sure each student meets or exceeds the standards in addition principals can use the data to assess exactly how much progress each teacher s students have made and to better inform decisions about how to run their schools ensures that teacher quality is a high priority no child left behind defines the qualifications needed by teachers and paraprofessionals who work on any facet of classroom instruction it requires that states develop plans to achieve the goal that all teachers of core academic subjects be highly qualified by the end of the 2005-06 school year states must include in their plans annual measurable objectives that each local 2[close]
p. 9
school district and school must meet in moving toward the goal they must report on their progress in the annual report cards gives more resources to schools today more than $7,000 on average is spent per pupil by local state and federal taxpayers states and local school districts are now receiving more federal funding than ever before for all programs under no child left behind $23.7 billion most of which will be used during the 2003-04 school year this represents an increase of 59.8 percent from 2000 to 2003 a large portion of these funds is for grants under title i of esea improving the academic achievement of the disadvantaged title i grants are awarded to states and local education agencies to help states and school districts improve the education of disadvantaged students turn around low-performing schools improve teacher quality and increase choices for parents for more about title i see the introductory paragraph to q-and-as on page 7 for fiscal year fy 2003 funding for title i alone is $11.7 billion an increase of 33 percent since the passage of no child left behind president bush s fy 2004 budget request would increase spending on title i by 48 percent since he took office allows more flexibility in exchange for the strong accountability no child left behind gives states and local education agencies more flexibility in the use of their federal education funding as a result principals and administrators spend less time filling out forms and dealing with federal red tape they have more time to devote to students needs they have more freedom to implement innovations and allocate resources as policymakers at the state and local levels see fit thereby giving local people a greater opportunity to affect decisions regarding their schools programs focuses on what works no child left behind puts a special emphasis on implementing educational programs and practices that have been clearly demonstrated to be effective through rigorous scientific research federal funding will be targeted to support such programs for example the reading first program makes federal funds available to help reading teachers in the early grades strengthen old skills and gain new ones in instructional techniques that scientifically based research has shown to be effective note for the purpose of discussion in this book the terms district and local education agency are used interchangeably in discussing the agency at the local level responsible for maintaining administrative control of public elementary and secondary schools in a given area or political subdivision of the state 3[close]
p. 10
why no child left behind is important to america federal spending on k-12 education under the elementary and secondary education act and naep reading scores age 9 22.5 appropriations in billions of dollars pp p 18 naep reading scores 13.5 9 4.5 500 0 19 66 19 70 19 75 19 80 19 19 20 19 20 85 95 00 90 04 year appropriations reading scores note appropriations for esea do not include funding for special education reading scores are the average scores for 9-year-olds according to the national assessment of educational progress naep a score of 200 implies an ability to understand combine ideas and make inferences based on short uncomplicated passages about specific or sequentially related information reflects the president s budget request for 2004 source u.s department of education budget service and naep 1999 trends in academic progress since the elementary and secondary education act first passed congress in 1965 the federal government has spent more than $242 billion through 2003 to help educate disadvantaged children yet the achievement gap in this country between rich and poor and white and minority students remains wide according to the most recent national assessment of educational progress naep on reading in 2000 only 32 percent of fourth-graders can read at a proficient level and thereby demonstrate solid academic achievement and while scores for the highest-performing students have improved over time those of america s lowest-performing students have declined national assessment of educational progress 2001 4[close]
p. 11
the good news is that some schools in cities and towns across the nation are creating high achievement for children with a history of low performance if some schools can do it then all schools should be able to do it united for results because of no child left behind parents will know their children s strengths and weaknesses and how well schools are performing they will have other options and resources for helping their children if their schools are chronically in need of improvement teachers will have the training and resources they need for teaching effectively using curricula that are grounded in scientifically based research annual testing lets them know areas in which students need extra attention principals will have information they need to strengthen their schools weaknesses and to put into practice methods and strategies backed by sound scientific research superintendents will be able to see which of their schools and principals are doing the best job and which need help to improve school boards will be able to measure how their districts are doing and to measure their districts in relation to others across the state they will have more and better information on which to base decisions about priorities in their districts chief state school officers will know how the schools in their states and in other states are doing they will be better able to pinpoint where guidance and resources are needed governors will have a yearly report card on how their states schools are doing they will be able to highlight accomplishments of the best schools and target help to those schools that are in need of improvement community leaders and volunteer groups will have information they can use to rally their members in efforts to help children and schools that need the most help 5[close]
p. 13
answer ers chi hild questions and answers on no child left behind the following discussion pertains only to public schools please note that the term title i schools refers to those schools that receive funds under title i of the elementary and secondary education act esea improving the academic achievement of the disadvantaged title i supports programs to improve the academic achievement of children of low-income families currently about half 55 percent of public schools receive funds under title i accountability how are school report cards put together and what kind of information do they provide reports on individual schools are part of the annual district report cards also known as local report cards each school district must prepare and disseminate annual local report cards that include information on how students in the district and in each school performed on state assessments the report cards must state student performance in terms of three levels basic proficient and advanced achievement data must be disaggregated or broken out by student subgroups according to race ethnicity gender english language proficiency migrant status disability status and low-income status the report cards must also tell which schools have been identified as needing improvement corrective action or restructuring defined in q-and-a below what if a school does not improve how can parents see these local report cards which include schoolby-school data states must ensure that the local districts make these local report cards available to the parents of students promptly and by no later than the beginning of the school year the law requires that the information be presented in an understandable and uniform format and to the extend practicable in a language that the parents can understand states and districts may also distribute this information to the media for publicizing post it on the internet or provide it to other public agencies for dissemination further local school districts must notify parents if their child s school has been identified as needing improvement corrective action or restructuring defined in q-and-a below what if a school does not improve in this event districts must let parents know the options available to them see section on choice and supplemental educational services on page 23 also districts must annually notify parents of students in title i schools of their 7[close]
p. 14
right to know about teacher qualifications and how to exercise it see section on teacher quality on page 20 what information is provided on state report cards each state must produce and disseminate annual report cards that provide information on student achievement in the state both overall and broken out according to the same subgroups as those appearing on the district report cards listed above state report cards include · state assessment results by performance level basic proficient and advanced including 1 two-year trend data for each subject and grade tested and 2 a comparison between annual objectives and actual performance for each student group · percentage of each group of students not tested · graduation rates for secondary school students and any other student achievement indicators that the state chooses · performance of school districts on adequate yearly progress measures including the number and names of schools identified as needing improvement · professional qualifications of teachers in the state including the percentage of teachers in the classroom with only emergency or provisional credentials and the percentage of classes in the state that are not taught by highly qualified teachers including a comparison between high and low-income schools what is adequate yearly progress how does measuring it help to improve schools no child left behind requires each state to define adequate yearly progress for school districts and schools within the parameters set by title i in defining adequate yearly progress each state sets the minimum levels of improvement measurable in terms of student performance that school districts and schools must achieve within time frames specified in the law in general it works like this each state begins by setting a starting point that is based on the performance of its lowest-achieving demographic group or of the lowest-achieving schools in the state whichever is higher the state then sets the bar or level of student achievement that a school must attain after two years in order to continue to show adequate yearly progress subsequent thresholds must be raised at least once every three years until at the end of 12 years all students in the state are achieving at the proficient level on state assessments in reading/language arts and math 8[close]
p. 15
what if a school does not improve states and local school districts will aid schools that receive title i funds in making meaningful changes that will improve their performance in the meantime districts will offer parents options for children in low-performing schools including extra help to children from low-income families see section on choice and supplemental educational services on page 23 the no child left behind act lays out an action plan and timetable for steps to be taken when a title i school fails to improve as follows · a title i school that has not made adequate yearly progress as defined by the state for two consecutive school years will be identified by the district before the beginning of the next school year as needing improvement school officials will develop a two-year plan to turn around the school the local education agency will ensure that the school receives needed technical assistance as it develops and implements its improvement plan students must be offered the option of transferring to another public school in the district which may include a public charter school that has not been identified as needing school improvement · if the school does not make adequate yearly progress for three years the school remains in school-improvement status and the district must continue to offer public school choice to all students in addition students from low-income families are eligible to receive supplemental educational services such as tutoring or remedial classes from a state-approved provider · if the school fails to make adequate progress for four years the district must implement certain corrective actions to improve the school such as replacing certain staff or fully implementing a new curriculum while continuing to offer public school choice and supplemental educational services for low-income students · if a school fails to make adequate yearly progress for a fifth year the school district must initiate plans for restructuring the school this may include reopening the school as a charter school replacing all or most of the school staff or turning over school operations either to the state or to a private company with a demonstrated record of effectiveness in addition the law requires states to identify for improvement those local education agencies that fail to make adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years or longer and to institute corrective actions 9[close]
Other Publications
Comments
no comments yet