Roxbury Township Public Schools 

The Information Corner:

No Child Left Behind

What is the No Child Left Behind act?  What is the history that led up to this historical legislation? What are some important ideas and terms to understand? What are the implications for your child? 

What is No Child Left Behind?

In January 2002 the United States Congress passed into law No Child Left Behind (NCLB), resulting in a greater level of federal involvement in public education than ever before in the history of the country.  The law and the spirit behind it, so ably communicated in its name, enjoyed strong bi-partisan support. Our legislators spoke for us all in asserting that every child should be challenged with high expectations and the opportunities necessary to meet them.

No Child Left Behind is based on three core principles:

- Holding schools accountable to improve student achievement (testing)

- Providing quality options for all students

- Ensuring highly qualified teachers for every child.

In order to fulfill these goals, the Act:

- Expands statewide standardized testing and reporting on school performance.  Students must be assessed in grades 3-8, and once during grades 10-12, in reading and in math by the end of the 2005-2006 school year, using state-designed tests.  Students must also be assessed in science once during grades 3-5, 6-9, and 9-12 by the end of the 2007-2008 school year, again, using state-designed tests. (Prior to NCLB the states were required by federal law to administer academic assessments in reading and math in one grade in each grade span of 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12.)

- Requires school districts to give students at schools that have not made adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years - determined by the application of a specific quantitative standard to test scores of the students as a whole and by sub-groups - the option of transferring to a school that is making adequate yearly progress.

- Requires school districts to provide supplemental educational services for students at schools that have not made adequate yearly progress for three consecutive years.

- Requires school districts to make sure that by 2005-2006 all students are taught by “highly qualified” teachers and paraprofessionals in core subjects. The law also requires districts to make information available to parents on teacher and paraprofessional qualifications, and to notify parents if their children are being taught by a teacher who does not meet the NCLB “highly qualified” standard.

- Accept nothing short of 100 percent student proficiency by 2014.

NCLB permits the U.S. Secretary of Education to withhold an unspecified amount of state administrative funds from states that fail to meet the requirements of the law.  New Jersey, it should be noted, is currently in compliance and has plans in place to insure future compliance.

What is the history of federal involvement in public education?

The history of federal legislation in the area of public education was, until the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, characterized by the hands-off policy that the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution implied. A greater level of involvement was initiated in the 1950’s with Brown v. Board of Education, and then with the advent of the space age, each leading in a different direction for federal involvement in an area that did not fall within the enumerated powers of Congress.  The two paths converged in the most recent revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 known as No Child Left Behind. (NCLB).  Within this legislation is the intent to address both the social injustice highlighted by Brown and the intellectual demands of the technological age, so vividly captured by the Russian launching of Sputnik. 

The original ESEA – Title I - was the response of the Lyndon Johnson administration to the need to provide remedial education to disadvantaged students.  The goals were not lofty: simply a means to provide federal support to help impoverished students attain basic reading and math skills.  With the publishing of the federal report, A Nation at Risk, in 1983, however, serious questions were raised about the effectiveness of the public education system in general, and about the efficacy of dollars spent under Title I, as well.  So was initiated a momentum that would lead to the federal funding of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act in 1994, the impetus behind the academic standards and aligned assessments movement that continues to be in various stages of development within the fifty states.  And so, too, was the setting established for the most recent and far-reaching revision of ESEA: No Child Left Behind, signed into law by President George W. Bush in January of 2002.

What are some important ideas and terms to understand?

Federal/State/Local Control: While NCLB marks the greatest involvement of the federal government in public education in history, state flexibility is a key element within the law.  Each individual state has the flexibility to define proficiency, the starting point for progress measurement, and the amount of progress that must be made from year to year.  While this flexibility is welcome, it is this very flexibility that makes it somewhat problematic to compare the performance of students in one state to that of another. Local districts must conform to state mandates that may include requirements beyond those of NCLB.

“Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP): AYP is a state developed measure of progress for all schools and school districts in the state.  Under NCLB, a state’s definition of AYP must apply specifically to disadvantaged subgroups of students, as well as to the overall student population.  This expectation serves to hold schools and districts accountable for improving the performance of disadvantaged students and to help educators, parents, and others determine whether progress is being made in closing the achievement gap.  States are required to define AYP so that all students are expected to improve and that by 2014 all students will achieve at the state defined “proficient” level on state reading and math academic assessments.  Each state is required to “raise the bar” gradually, but in equal increments to reach 100 percent proficiency.  The initial bar, established in 2002, was required to be raised in two years.  Subsequent thresholds must be raised at least once every three years.  New Jersey has elected to “raise the bar” every two years.

“Safe Harbor”: A provision in the law called “safe harbor” gives individual schools and districts credit for making significant progress toward proficiency even if they have not technically met the AYP threshold.  “Safe Harbor” is satisfied if the students in any group or subgroup make a 10 percent reduction in the number of students who are not proficient.

“Disaggregated Data”: Disaggregating data means that testing results are examined not only in terms of how the entire population of a school or district performs but how well each defined subgroup of students performs.  Testing results are broken down by forty different categories, including race, gender, ethnicity, economic status, percent in each group taking the test, and more.  Failure to make adequate yearly progress/safe harbor in any one category results in no different label than failure to make AYP in any number of categories.  Based on the demographics of any given district, the number in any one subgroup can be quite small, and the line that separates a school from being labeled as under performing, very fine.  NCLB establishes a framework of accountability that is intended to help schools identify the area(s) they need to focus on in order to improve the academic achievement of all students, regardless of race, gender, financial status, or learning disability.  NCLB recognizes that in looking solely at how students achieve in the aggregate – as a whole group – the achievement gaps between the high performing students and the disadvantaged students might fail to be adequately addressed.

“School Improvement,” “Corrective Action,” and “Restructuring”: Schools that do not make state defined adequate yearly progress/safe harbor for two consecutive years are identified as “in need of improvement.”  These schools develop a two-year plan to turn around the school, and will give all students in the school the option to transfer to another public school within the district that has not been identified as in need of improvement.  If a school does not makes adequate yearly progress/safe harbor for three consecutive years, the school remains in school improvement and the district must continue to offer public school choice to all students in the school in need of improvement and provide low achieving, disadvantaged students within the school supplemental services from a state approved provider of their choice.  If a school does not make adequate yearly progress/safe harbor for four consecutive years, certain corrective actions to improve the school, such as implementing a new curriculum, are implemented in addition to those measures already in place from the previous year.  If a school does not make adequate yearly progress/safe harbor for four consecutive years, it would be identified for restructuring and would have to make a plan for significant change in governance.  Once adequate yearly progress/safe harbor have been achieved for two consecutive years, schools are no longer considered to be in need of improvement, corrective action, or restructuring.

What are the implications for your child(ren)?

            While No Child Left Behind is bringing new scrutiny to the academic achievement of all students, regardless of their disadvantages, one thing has not and will not change: One main key to high student achievement is parental involvement with the school and with the child’s education.  Never before has the partnership between the home and school been so essential.

            In March of 2005, elementary students in grades three and four will be administered state developed assessments: NJ ASK3 and NJ ASK4.  Students in elementary grades 2, 5, and 6 will be administered the appropriate grade level version of the Terra Nova, in accordance with a decision by the Roxbury Board of Education and not mandated by the state or federal government.  It is anticipated that grades 5 and 6 will be included in the state mandated assessments starting in the 2005-2006 school year.  What can you do to help assure that your child will perform successfully on these assessments?

1. Attendance: Attending school on a regular basis and being ready to learn are essential to academic growth and successful performance on standardized assessments that occur just once during the year.  It is simple but true that a good breakfast and adequate sleep can make the difference between a child that is engaged and eager to learn, and one who is listless and lacking in energy.  It is essential that your child be at his or her best every day.

2. Communication: This applies to student/teacher, student/parent, and parent/teacher.  Each of our concerns should be all of our concerns.  Encourage your child to tell you about his/her successes and challenges at school, and never hesitate to write a note or make a phone call to your child’s teacher to communicate information or thoughts that may impact on your child’s performance. 

3. Preparation and Practice: The Roxbury School District has curriculums in place that are consistent with the Core Curriculum Content Standards of New Jersey.  The textbooks and teaching materials are current and well used.  The school days are scheduled in a manner to provide for optimum time on task to insure that the time your child spends at school is used to its best advantage.  You, the parent, can be an invaluable resource in helping to prepare your child for standardized assessments by providing opportunities for well-targeted practice of essential skills.

You are invited and encouraged to read the letters in the following Dear Roxie column for some ideas and hotlinks to sites that provide test preparation practice targeted at specific grade levels and academic areas.  There are approximately four months until the assessments are administered; the links offered to you will provide a wealth of skills practice during that time.

  Practice, as they say, makes perfect!

Dear Roxie Berry,

Practice Makes Perfect