Research Briefs

Implementation of No Child Left Behind: State Progress

Volume 5 / Issue 2 / Winter 2005

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was signed into law two and a half years ago to provide states with a systematic approach to achieve education reform and improvement. Some view the act as burdensome to states, districts, and schools, while others feel that it is necessary, however ambitious it may be, for improving public education. The basic goals of NCLB are to

• eliminate the gaps between groups of students that traditionally perform well in school and groups that do not,
• ensure that all students are proficient in reading and math by the 2013–14 school year,
• guarantee that every classroom is staffed by a highly qualified teacher, and
• Make all schools safer.

The U.S. Department of Education granted the Education Commission of the States (ECS) $2 million to track state progress toward implementation of NCLB. In a recent report, available at www.ecs.org/reporttothenation, the ECS shares its findings and organizes them into the seven categories of the law’s requirements.

The report provides information in each category on how and what the states are doing and on the issues and challenges that they face. The ECS’s analysis shows that the states have made considerable progress: all but two states and the District of Columbia have either met or partially met 75 percent of NCLB requirements. Five states—Connecticut, Kentucky, New York, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania—have met or partially met all 40 requirements.

Several NCLB requirements are particularly challenging: implementing high-quality professional development for teachers; ensuring that teachers are qualified to teach in their subject area; providing technical assistance to low-performing schools; and establishing methods for collecting and reporting data at the school, district, and state levels. Its analysis has led the ECS to make five major recommendations for federal and state leaders to consider as they fine-tune the law:

1. Draw on NCLB to advance civil rights by providing opportunities to raise expectations and narrow the achievement gaps that exist between schools.
2. Ensure performance growth of all students, not just low-performing students.
3. Reassess adequate yearly progress so that it accurately reflects student performance and schools’ and teachers’ contributions to the gains.
4. Strengthen state highly qualified teacher requirements.
5. Build state and local capacity for assisting schools in need of improvement.

The second recommendation is of particular importance to the gifted and talented. Seeing the commission focus on improving the performance of all students is exciting, because in response to NCLB, many states have diverted funds from programs that support the needs of our brightest students to programs that provide remediation services to low-performing students. For example, Illinois recently converted $19 million of funding originally designated for gifted and talented programs into a state block grant. Gifted and talented students are increasingly “left behind” as classroom teachers are forced to prepare their students for high-stakes tests, often at the cost of academically rigorous learning experiences. In Education Week Carol Ann Tomlinson, president of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), has stated that “the No Child Left Behind Act, with its focus on proficiency rather than academic growth, enhances the likelihood that this broad swath of learners [proficient students] will be all but irrelevant in daily classroom planning.”

The NAGC, along with state associations for the gifted, unites parents, teachers, and others in increasing awareness about the special needs of the gifted. As an advocate for your child, you can work with your school district to ensure that the needs of gifted students are addressed through NCLB implementation. For example, NCLB requires districts to explain how they will provide training to enable teachers to address the needs of students with different learning styles. As a parent, you can advocate for the incorporation of the unique learning styles of the gifted in such training. Parents can also encourage their state representatives and senators to support legislation that addresses the needs of the gifted and talented (i.e., the Jacob K. Javits Act, which supports research and statewide grant programs for gifted education). The NAGC provides a legislative update, available at www.nagc.org/policy/index.html, that informs supporters about legislation in Congress and recommends what action to take.

Parents’ voices are valuable to the future of gifted education in this nation. Your insight into the unique learning needs of your child is unparalleled, and your influence on policy makers may be invaluable.
—Kristen R. Stephens, PhD

Kristen R. Stephens is coordinator of educational outreach at the Duke University Talent Identification Program and editor in chief of the Duke Gifted Letter.