General Information on
No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act holds states responsible for making sure that all students are held to high standards. Irrespective of where students live and how much money their parents make, their schools must be staffed by highly qualified teachers, academic standards must be high, and curriculum must be challenging. In addition their parents are entitled to the information they need to monitor their child’s progress and hold schools accountable.
Educational equity has been talked about for decades, but in the past this meant trying to equalize funding for schools. Instead, NCLB uses standards as a way to equalize educational opportunity. It mandates academic standards that spell out and make public what all students should learn. No Child Left Behind also provides additional funding to schools that need more resources to provide a quality education to their students. States have to make sure that high poverty schools have high quality teachers to deliver challenging curriculum.
Most important, they must hold schools and districts accountable for getting ALL students to proficiency within a specified time frame. The time frame is not unrealistic. Already, there are literally thousands of high poverty schools that produce high results with their students.
