No Child Left Behind: Half Way There?

Originally published here on May 21, 2008.

The Associate Press had a story today on reaching the halfway point of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The law was enacted in 2002. States had 12 years (until 2014) to fully implement the accountability provisions of the law that require 100% proficiency for student in core subjects.You can read the AP story here.

The law's accountability provisions required states to set benchmarks for the amount of improvement they expected to make along the way to achieving the 100% requirement of NCLB. Failure to achieve those goals, to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward the 100% mark, could under the law result in punitive action against individual schools...

The release of a study by the non-partisan Center for Education Policy (CEP) triggered the AP story. The CEP says that about half of the states set their benchmarks in a manner that might best be described as back loading- something like a balloon payment at the end of a loan. Those states set small goals in for the first half of NCLB and larger goals for the second half. One state, for example, has seen a 10% improvement in math scores in the last six year - from 14% proficient to 24% proficient. Now, in the next six years, they need a 76% improvement to satisfy the laws requirements...

Among the states described in the CEP study as back loading: West Virginia.

The AP article and the CEP study describe the 100% requirement of NCLB in a negative light. The AP article quotes Michael Petrilli, vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington-based education think tank.

Educators look at that goal and say, 'These people must be kidding,'" Petrilli said.

They also quote one California lawmaker who says that the 100% provision is a disincentive because it is frustrating and unachievable. The national economic downturn hasn't helped because it means fewer resources for local education budgets at a time when the results being expected are on the rise.

It will be interesting to watch the education (and political) scene over the next as the balloon payment on NCLB's accountability provisions comes due...