The American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association and numerous education and policy groups say the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has major flaws that must be corrected if the law is to achieve its stated goals. These include the following:

Unattainable goals. By mandating that 100 percent of students be proficient by the year 2014, the law sets schools up for failure. In Minnesota, the legislative auditor predicts that 85 percent of Minnesota’s schools will be labeled “failing” by 2014.

Fixed targets. Because progress in a given year is linked to a fixed target, many schools don’t get credit for substantial improvement. For example, Nevada’s elementary school target in 2004-05 was 45 percent proficient or above in mathematics. In that state, a school that made dramatic improvements – increasing from 30 percent proficient to 40 percent, for example – would fail to make AYP. Meanwhile, a higher performing school whose scores had dropped from 65 percent to 55 percent proficient would meet the objective.

Unrelated comparisons. This year’s third-graders will be compared to next year’s third graders – different sets of students. Therefore, schools receive no credit for growth over time for individual students or the same cohort of students.

Disaggregated test results. Reporting test results for separate groups helps monitor students who have traditionally been ignored and helps narrow the achievement gap. However, reporting more groups increases the number of ways schools can fail to meet AYP. If just one subgroup fails to meet its goal, the entire school misses its goal. In fact, a school can fail AYP in 37 different ways.

Funding. Congress knew that the goals of NCLB could not be achieved without additional resources and it set a funding authorization for NCLB for each year. For Title I, the cornerstone of NCLB, the authorization for 2006 is $22.75 billion. But President Bush has requested only $13.3 billion. Minnesota will receive an estimated $111.5 million in Title I funding in 2006, far below the $190.2 million authorized by Congress.

How do we fix the flaws?
The 2006 Legislature, after considering withdrawing from NCLB altogether and forfeiting federal funds, adopted compromise legislation directing the commissioner of education to seek a waiver from NCLB in the following areas:

1. Develop a plan for determining adequate yearly progress that uses multiple measures, including value-added measurements of student achievement, in addition to standardized test results.
2. Exclude from sanctions a school that is classified as not having made AYP due solely to different subgroups testing below proficient levels for at least two consecutive years.
3. Allow the site to average three years of data for purposes of identifying a school for improvement.
4. Allow the state to use NCLB money to provide supplemental education services only in the academic subject area that causes the school to miss AYP.
5. Exclude from sanctions schools that have not made AYP due solely to a subgroup of students with disabilities not testing at a proficient level.
6. Identify a school as not making AYP only after the school has missed the targets in the same subject and subgroup for two consecutive years.
7. Limit the score of a student within multiple subgroups to the smallest subgroup in which the student is included when calculating AYP.
8. Determine when to hold schools accountable for including a student with limited English proficiency in AYP calculations.
9. Use a fully computer-adaptive test to comply with NCLB.

NCLB resources
Education Minnesota NCLB page
Basics, updates and FAQs.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Full text of the NCLB law.