No Child Left Behind

Update On Implementation Of No Child Left Behind

Last Updated Oct 5, 2008 00:19 AM

Committee Gets Update on Implementation of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Education Reforms

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Undersecretary of Education Eugene Hickok and other witnesses today updated members of the House Education & the Workforce Committee on the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, the historic education reform law passed with bipartisan support and signed by President Bush in January.


“Implementing No Child Left Behind involves more than just issuing regulations, reviewing applications, and making the grants,” Hickok said. “It really means bringing the whole country together around the idea that, if we are to continue to flourish as a Nation, no child really can be left behind; that it is time to stop making excuses for educational failure, and time to use the framework provided by this legislation to get on with what we have to do.

“Toward that end, we have communicated continually with governors, chief State school officers, school superintendents, teachers, parents, business leaders, and the general public on this Act and on the vision that it embodies,” Hickok noted.

Among the details members learned about implementation of the new law:

· Thirty-nine States have now applied for participation in President Bush’s Reading First program, meant to help states ensure that every child reads by the third grade by tripling funding for reading programs based on scientific research. On June 25, Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced the first group of Reading First awards - Alabama, Colorado, and Florida - and the Department expects to announce a second group in early August.


· Thirteen U.S. states have informed the Department of their intention to apply for participation in the State Flexibility (State-Flex) initiative created by No Child Left Behind, which gives states greater control and flexibility with federal education funds. A local flexibility initiative (Local-Flex) was also created. The Department expects to announce the first group of Local-Flex districts in December and the first States in January.


· Secretary Paige today will outline for state and local leaders the adequate yearly progress (AYP) provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The information is being provided in a letter to state and local education leaders throughout the country.

· Proposed regulations for certain key Title I provisions, such as AYP, accountability, and teacher and paraprofessional qualifications will be published in the Federal Register during the week of July 29.

· Secretary Paige has visited more than 15 cities to spread the word about the new options the Act makes available to parents, and has forged new partnerships with groups like the National Council of Negro Women, Alpha Kappa Alpha, and other groups that have strong links to parents and communities.


· The Department has created a series of publications on No Child Left Behind, including a parents’ guide, brochures and fact sheets that provide information for parents about key provisions of the law. Publications have been created that give parents tips on helping their children with reading and homework. These publications are available in both English and Spanish. The Department also developed the NoChildLeftBehind.gov website, which provides a wealth of information to tens of thousands of constituents every week, and a bi-weekly e-newsletter that reaches over 11,000 subscribers. In the last four months, the Department has distributed more than 100,000 parents’ guides to No Child Left Behind.


Education & the Workforce Chairman John Boehner (R-OH) stressed the importance of accountability, observing that “many of today’s schools the victims of low expectations. For a generation, we pumped billions into a system that lacked accountability, never insisting on results. Compassion was measured in terms of dollars spent, instead of results produced. As long as government was spending as much money as it could on struggling schools, we believed we were doing all we could to close the academic achievement gap and ensure all students were achieving.”


“That kind of thinking is no longer acceptable, and it’s why the No Child Left Behind Act has the potential to be a pivotal moment in American education,” Boehner continued. “We’re no longer willing to force parents to keep their children in schools that are dangerous or chronically underachieving. And we’re no longer willing to accept that some public schools are locked on an irreversible collision course with disappointment and despair.”


Education Reform Subcommittee Chairman Michael Castle (R-DE) called states “laboratories of education innovation. No Child Left Behind gives them the freedom and flexibility they need to implement innovative education reform plans that have proven successful in improving student achievement.”

Boehner noted that it is now up to “parents, teachers, school officials, business leaders, and lawmakers to work together at all levels to ensure that no child is left behind.”


In conclusion, he called the challenge of implementing No Child Left Behind “a responsibility owed to those children who have slipped through the cracks in today’s public education system. No Child Left Behind provides a roadmap-and the resources-for even the most troubled public schools in America to pull themselves up. It doesn’t guarantee success-but it gives our poorest schools and poorest students the fighting chance they so desperately deserve.”

See also No Child Left Behind 491 1 - 9