The State of No Child Left Behind’s Progress February 29, 2008

The ambitious goal of Capitol Hill is to close the learning gap, eliminate dropouts, produce Americans with knowledge and skills enabling them to compete in a global high tech economy, and ensure all students achieve proficiency in key subjects like reading, science, and math. These are the same goals the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) promised to achieve beginning in 1965.

The ESEA was built on a prior tax enhancement program for schools where federal facilities lowered taxes revenues. ESEA expanded that federal aid program to include a number new enhancement programs (breakfast, special education, etc.) to help student from poor families.

The latest version of ESEA is No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This version attaches student and teacher achievement goals to program funding. The goals to be achieved are still those mentioned above. Under Pres. Bush, the bar of accountability was raised rankling many professional educators and educational associations.

The purpose of the charts and graphs that follow is to give us an idea of how NCLB is doing. The first chart presents the total number schools in the United States, how many schools are meeting yearly goals, how many need improvement, and how many must be closed or restructured. The latter schools have failed to achieve year goals more than 3 years. (more…)