no child left behind · no child left behind companion to:using nclb for school improvement fact...

12
What’s in this guide? Why the Law is Important “No Child At A Glance”: Brief Summary of the Law Information You’re Entitled To School Improvement Fact Sheets: Understanding the Law Who can use this guide? Anyone interested in learning more about schools and how to improve them. Parents and parent group leaders Advocates for children and public education Leaders of community based organizations Members of community based organizations Educators Any citizen concerned about the state of public schools Improving Your Schools:A Parent and Community Guide To Fall 2003 No Child Left Behind Companion to: USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS

Upload: others

Post on 13-Aug-2020

4 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: No Child Left Behind · No Child Left Behind Companion to:USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS. U sed effectively, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be an impor-tant

What’s in this guide?

Why the Law is Important

“No Child At A Glance”: Brief Summary of the Law

Information You’re Entitled To

School Improvement

Fact Sheets: Understanding the Law

Who can use this guide?Anyone interested in learning more about schools andhow to improve them.

Parents and parent group leaders

Advocates for children and public education

Leaders of community based organizations

Members of community based organizations

Educators

Any citizen concerned about the state of public schools

Improving Your Schools: A Parent and Community Guide To

Fall 2003

No Child Left BehindCompanion to: USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS

Page 2: No Child Left Behind · No Child Left Behind Companion to:USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS. U sed effectively, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be an impor-tant

Used effectively, the NoChild Left Behind Act(NCLB) can be an impor-

tant tool for improving achievementand closing the achievement gap.There is an achievement gap becausewe have held some students to highstandards but not others. Yes, somestudents enter school behind. Butinstead of working hard to help thesestudents catch up, our schools oftenmake them worse. Low-income stu-dents and students of color have con-sistently been short changed. They’vehad the least qualified teachers, theleast challenging curriculum and thepoorest equipped schools.

The No Child Left Behind Act(NCLB) holds states responsiblefor making sure that all studentsare held to high standards.Irrespective of where students liveand how much money their parentsmake, their schools must be staffed

by highly qualified teachers, aca-demic standards must be challeng-ing, and curriculum must matchthose standards. In addition, par-ents are entitled to the honestinformation they need to monitortheir child’s progress and holdschools accountable.

NCLB uses standards as a way toequalize educational opportunity.

NCLB doesn’t stop at standards—it adds other tools to the advocates’kit. States must publicly report onstudents’ progress and their accessto qualified teachers. Most impor-tant, they must hold schools anddistricts accountable for gettingALL students to proficiency with-in a specified timeframe. Thattimeframe is challenging, but it isnot unrealistic. Already, there areliterally thousands of high povertyschools that are on-track to meetthese goals.

To assist school improvementefforts, NCLB provides over 11 bil-lion dollars to help schools that edu-cate students from low-income fami-lies, and another $3 billion to helprecruit and train teachers in theseschools. In exchange, states have tomake sure that high poverty schoolshave high quality teachers to deliverchallenging curriculum.

Public education is at a crossroads.We can take the hard path to a highquality education for all students—orwe can take the easy path that allowsthe system to continue relegating toomany students to an inferior educa-tion. No law is perfect, but NCLBcan be used as a powerful tool by par-ents and education advocates toadvance us on the path toward edu-cational equity. Even if there areaspects of the law you think shouldbe different, it’s important for com-munity advocates to know how theycan use NCLB to bolster their efforts.

The Education Trust is committedto helping teachers, parents, andcommunity advocates who are work-ing to help public schools more effec-tively teach all students. We pre-pared this guide and other materialsto help your community use NCLBto make your schools successful.

The next section of this guideshows you “NCLB at a Glance.” It’sa summary of the important points inthe law. All through this guide wewill refer to other materials that youcan use to deepen your understand-ing of the policies in the law. TheFact Sheets will give you more infor-mation on each of the topics thatyou’ll get at a glance.

Together, communities, schools andparents can use the tools provided byNCLB to advocate for all students.We don’t have time to waste, so let’sget started!

Improving Your Schools: A Parent and Community Guide To No Child Left Behind

The Education Trust

2

Why The Law Is Important

Page 3: No Child Left Behind · No Child Left Behind Companion to:USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS. U sed effectively, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be an impor-tant

The No Child Left BehindAct of 2001 (NCLB) wassigned into law January 8,

2002, with the overwhelming sup-port of both Democrats andRepublicans. NCLB is the mostrecent reauthorization of the federalgovernment’s biggest K-12 program,which began in 1965. The informa-tion below specifies what states mustdo to implement NCLB. The mostimportant points of NCLB are:

StandardsStates must adopt and define

challenging standards for whatchildren should know and be ableto do. The standards are publicdocuments you can get from yourschool, district or the state depart-ment of education. They will help you know what your child isexpected to learn in school.

Testing/AssessmentsEvery state currently tests its stu-

dents at various grade levels.Starting no later than the 2005-06school year, students must be testedeach year in grades 3 to 8, and oncein grades 10-12 in reading andmath. All students in the samegrade level throughout the statetake the same test once a year.Yearly testing will enable us to tellhow well teachers are teaching andstudents are learning. States mustadopt high-quality assessments thatare aligned with their academicstandards—this makes sure that stu-dents are tested on what the stan-dards indicate they should knowand be able to do.

Public Reporting/DataFor the first time, states, dis-

tricts and schools across the coun-

try must publicly report data thathas been nearly impossible forparents and advocates to obtain inmost states. They must report howall groups of students are progress-ing toward meeting standards: byrace, poverty level, children withdisabilities and English languagelearners. States must define whatconstitutes a highly qualified

teacher and report the definition tothe public. States, districts andschools have to report differencesin teacher qualifications in high-poverty versus low-poverty schools.

Adequate YearlyProgress (AYP)Accountability

For the first time, NCLB putssome muscle behind federal account-ability provisions to ensure thatstates, districts, and schools effec-tively teach all students. States must

Improving Your Schools: A Parent and Community Guide To No Child Left Behind 3

The Education Trust

At A GlanceNo Child Left Behind

Page 4: No Child Left Behind · No Child Left Behind Companion to:USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS. U sed effectively, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be an impor-tant

set clear timelines for improving stu-dent achievement, with particularemphasis on closing achievement gapsbetween low-income and minoritystudents and their peers. Setting thesame high standards for all studentsand schools is crucial for fairness andequity. You can’t close achievementgaps by setting lower expectations forpreviously low-performing schools. Toget all students to proficiency, stateshave to accelerate their progress withthe students that are farthest awayfrom meeting standards.

States must publish a formulacalled Adequate Yearly Progress(AYP) as to how they will deter-mine how much progress schoolsneed to make each year. If schoolsdon’t make their AYP targets,states must provide help. If schoolsdon’t improve after 6 years, funda-mental changes need to take place.The goal is for all students to meetthe state definition of “proficient”in reading and math by 2014.

For more detailed information seethe Fact Sheet on AYP.

School ImprovementA school is designated as needing

improvement when state assess-ment data reveal after

two years in a row that one or moregroups of students are not makingenough progress toward meeting stan-dards.

The state, school district and theschool collaborate on a two-year planto spell out exactly what each will doto improve student achievement.This is called a “School ImprovementPlan.” The plan should not only spec-ify what educators will do, but shouldinclude how parents and communityagencies will participate in develop-ing and implementing the plan.

Teacher Quality Students can’t learn what their

teachers don’t know how toteach. States must define a “highlyqualified” teacher. The law definesa “highly qualified teacher” as atleast having a college degree,demonstrating content knowledgein the subjects he or she is teach-ing and satisfying state certificationand licensure requirements. Statescan add to this definition. Statesdetermine the tests they will use

for teacher certification and thelevel of proficiency on the teststhat define “highly qualified.” Thestate must collect and publiclyreport data on teacher quality.

States must report whether low-income and students of color areassigned more than their fair shareof inexperienced, unqualified, orout-of-field teachers. If so, thestate must develop a plan to fixthis problem and publicly reporton its progress.

Parent Involvement“Before we had to fight, now it’s

our right.” Parents now have a rightto school, district and state data onacademic achievement, graduationrates, and the qualifications of theirchildren’s teachers. Now, schoolsmust inform parents on the perform-ance of their school and whethertheir children are being taught byunder-qualified teachers. NCLBrequires that parents be activelyinvolved in the decision makingprocess at their school.

Improving Your Schools: A Parent and Community Guide To No Child Left Behind4

Page 5: No Child Left Behind · No Child Left Behind Companion to:USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS. U sed effectively, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be an impor-tant

The Education Trust

Improving Your Schools: A Parent and Community Guide To No Child Left Behind 5

Title I Requirements in 1994 version and in NCLBOld Law New Law

States required to adopt state-definedstandards, develop assessments, and identifyschools in need of improvement.

States and schools required to collect data onachievement of different groups of studentsby poverty, race, limited-English proficiencyand disability status.

Required three times: once in grades 3-5, oncein grades 6-9, and once in grades 10-12.

States set up their own accountability systems.No requirement to establish timelines for fullproficiency. No requirement to focus onclosing the achievement gap.

States were supposed to develop systems forrequiring change in low-performing schools,but little change actually occurred.

Not covered.

Same.

Same.But for the first time, states required topublicly report achievement data by differentgroups – known as disaggregated data.

Beginning in 2005-06, required each year fromgrades 3-8 and once in grades 10-12.

Every state and school district is responsiblefor ensuring that within 12 years all studentswill meet the state standard for proficient inreading and math. Schools must usedisaggregated data to ensure that ALL groupsof students are making adequate progress.

Local leaders choose what form changeshould take, but real change must beimplemented. States, districts, and schools arerequired to focus additional attention andresources on schools needing improvement.Parents have options to transfer their childrento higher performing schools or to receivesupplemental education services paid for withfederal money.

Requires states to define a qualified teacherand to ensure that low-income and minoritystudents are not taught disproportionately byinexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-fieldteachers. States have until 2005-06 to get allteachers to state standards.

Standards

Student data collection

Testing

Accountability

What happens when schools don’t meet their goals?

Highly Qualified Teachers

Page 6: No Child Left Behind · No Child Left Behind Companion to:USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS. U sed effectively, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be an impor-tant

The Education Trust

tified in the subject areas theyare teaching.

• You should receive a notice ifyour child is being taught by ateacher’s aide, and if so, whatqualifications they have.

• You should receive a notice ifyour child has been taught formore than four weeks in a rowby a teacher who is not highlyqualified.

• You have a right to see theprincipal’s certification of com-pliance with the teacher qualityprovisions of NCLB.

• You have a right to see the dis-trict’s plan for increasingteacher quality.

• You have a right to see the dis-trict’s plan for making sure thatlow-income students and stu-dents of color get their fairshare of qualified and experi-enced teachers.

IF YOUR SCHOOL IS IDENTIFIEDAS “IN NEED OF IMPROVEMENT”YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW:

• The specific areas the schoolneeds to improve.

• What specific steps the state,district and school will take toimprove student achievement.

• How you or other parents canbe involved in the schoolimprovement plan.

Information You’reEntitled To

No Child Left Behind gives youleverage to make sure your childreceives a high quality education.

The following is a summary of yourrights to information under NoChild Left Behind:

ABOUT YOUR CHILD’SACHIEVEMENT:• You have the right to receive

a report of your child’s aca-demic performance, with clear information about anyneeds which may have beenidentified for your child. Youcan then work with yourchild’s teachers to addressthose needs.

• The state and district mustrelease school-level, district-level, and state-level reportcards, which you can use tocompare your child’s achieve-ment levels to those of otherchildren in your school, districtand state.

ABOUT TEACHER QUALITY:• You have a right to know if

your child’s teachers have emer-gency or temporary credentials.

• You have a right to know ifteachers in your school are cer-

• Your school choice options andhow to obtain supplementalservices for your child (onlychildren from low-income fami-lies are eligible for supplemen-tal services).

ABOUT PARENT INVOLVEMENT:• The school must set up pro-

grams and activities to increaseparent involvement.

• If parents ask, the school musthold regular meetings to discussparent concerns.

• Parents must be consulted onthe writing of a school districtparent involvement plan.

• Once the plan is adopted, allparents must receive a copy ofthe school improvement plan,and this plan must contain spe-cific plans for increasing parentinvolvement.

Our ChildrenShortchanged

For far too many years, childrenliving in poverty and children ofcolor have been shortchanged bythis country’s educational systems.

• In the United States, 61% ofAfrican American fourthgraders and 57% of Latinofourth graders cannot evenread at the basic level.Nationally, 54% of fourthgrade students from poor fam-ilies are below basic readers,compared to only 24% offourth graders from moreaffluent families.

• The picture is similar foreighth grade math:Nationally, 68% of AfricanAmerican and 60% of Latinoeighth graders cannot dobasic level math. And while24% of eighth grade studentsfrom non-poor families fallbelow the basic level in math,56% of eighth graders frompoor families do.

Improving Your Schools: A Parent and Community Guide To No Child Left Behind6

Knowing why the No Child Left

Behind Act is important and what

it says is just the beginning. These

next sections will provide more detail on

how NCLB is designed to bring all students

to the level of proficiency by the year 2014

and what you, as parents, are entitled to.

Page 7: No Child Left Behind · No Child Left Behind Companion to:USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS. U sed effectively, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be an impor-tant

• Nationally, African Americanand Latino high school sen-iors have identical readingand math skills as whiteeighth graders.

The evidence is clear: there arehuge achievement gaps among differ-ent groups of children.

Four Factors thatContribute to theAchievement Gap

Some children – especially thosegrowing up in poverty – mayarrive at school behind. Butmany times the schools cause thegap to widen. Why?

• LOW STANDARDS— In high-poverty schools, students oftenaren’t held to high standards, sothey are given “A”s for workthat would earn a “C” in amore affluent school.

• LOW LEVEL CURRICULUM—Schools often have low expecta-tions for students living inpoverty and students of color, sothose students aren’t taught witha challenging curriculum thatwill push them to do their best.

• LEAST QUALIFIED/EXPERIENCEDTEACHERS— High povertyschools have more than theirshare of inexperienced, unquali-fied, and teachers teaching out-side of their field of expertise.

• FEWER RESOURCES—High-poverty schools often don’thave well equipped libraries,science labs, or the most cur-rent textbooks and instruction-al materials.

The fact is, all too often, childrenwho need the most usually receivethe least from their schools.

Four Ways NCLB Seeksto Close the Gap:

• Establishing clear and consis-tent goals for student learning;

• Measuring whether students arereaching the goals and provid-ing clear, public information onthe results;

• Getting highly qualified teach-ers in every classroom; and

• Providing teachers with train-ing and support, then holdingschools accountable for raisingstudent achievement.

No Child Left Behind focuses onwhat schools can do to ensure everychild has the opportunity to learn.

NCLB Gives ParentsPowerful New AdvocacyTools By:

• Requiring states to set consis-tent goals for student achieve-ment and making informationon student achievement readilyavailable;

• Making states and districtspromise to provide qualifiedteachers to ALL students andmaking information on teacherquality readily available;

• Mandating that every schoolgive parents a copy of theschool report card;

• Sending notices home ofimportant meetings that con-cern policy related issues;

• Assisting parents with theirchoice of schools, when appli-cable; and

• Making parents full partners inthe school improvementprocess.

The good news for parents andcommunities is that the data isclear – schools can and do make ahuge difference. There are thou-sands of examples all over thecountry of schools where childrenliving in poverty and children ofcolor are achieving at very highlevels. The goal of NCLB is tomake these schools the rule. Parentand community involvement is anessential element in ensuring thatour schools become high-perform-ing successful places that prepareour children to meet the chal-lenges ahead.

Improving Your Schools: A Parent and Community Guide To No Child Left Behind 7

The Education Trust

Page 8: No Child Left Behind · No Child Left Behind Companion to:USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS. U sed effectively, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be an impor-tant

The Education Trust

The SchoolImprovement Plan:A PROCESS FOR IMPROVINGACADEMIC INSTRUCTION

The School Improvement Plan is

key to using NCLB to improvelow performing schools. Butschools have always had todevelop plans and involve par-ents, so what makes this schoolimprovement plan process differ-

ent from previous plans? The chartbelow shows major differencesbetween previous school improve-ment requirements and those inNCLB.

In the end, a plan is only as goodas its implementation. It is yourright and responsibility to make surethat schools follow through andmake the changes that are promisedin the plan.

What goes into theSchool ImprovementPlan?

When a school finds out that ithas not made adequate progress fortwo years in a row, it needs to

Improving Your Schools: A Parent and Community Guide To No Child Left Behind8

This guide will help you to learn how

to use the No Child Left Behind Act to

improve the quality of education your

child receives by taking you through a step-by-

step process examining the important aspects

of the Act and providing useful “Fact Sheets.”

Old and New School Improvement Plans at a GlanceOld School

Improvement PlansNCLB School

Improvement Plans

No requirement to disaggregate test results or toidentify which students need the most help.

No time certain requirement for getting students tomeet standards.

No requirement to report data to the public.

No specific help from state.

Weak consequences for schools that don’t makeimprovement.

Weak requirements for professional development.

State has to provide help to individual schools anddistricts. States get extra federal money to help makeschool improvement work.

Requires professional development for teachers in theacademic subjects in which students aren’t meetingprogress goals. 10% of a school’s Title I funds must bespent on Professional Development.

A demand for meaningful change, based on specificplans and timelines, for schools that do not makeimprovement.

Requires schools, districts and states to usedisaggregated data by race, poverty, limited Englishproficiency and disability.

Requires states to specify time lines for academicimprovement for each group of students to reachproficiency on state standards in 12 years.

Requires schools, states and districts to publicly reporton student achievement at regular intervals.

Page 9: No Child Left Behind · No Child Left Behind Companion to:USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS. U sed effectively, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be an impor-tant

immediately notify parents and startthe process of developing a schoolimprovement plan. Within 3months after being identified, theschool must develop its schoolimprovement plan in consultationwith parents, school staff, the cen-tral office, and outside experts.

The improvement plan shouldexplain how the school will workto improve the academic instruc-tion in order to raise studentachievement. The plan must covera 2-year period and incorporatestrategies that have demonstratedsuccess in raising student achieve-ment. The plan should identify the specific areas of instructionthat need improvement andexplain what changes the schoolwill make.

The plan should also explain whatassistance will be provided by thedistrict and the state. One of thegoals of NCLB is for states andschool districts to take more respon-sibility and play a more active rolein helping schools that aren’t meet-ing their goals. Each state gets fed-eral money specifically to helpschools implement improvementplans. You should ask what the stateand district are doing to help yourschool.

In order for learning to improve,instruction must improve. NCLBrequires schools in improvement togive teachers professional develop-ment that helps teachers learnmore effective strategies in the spe-cific areas where students are strug-gling. To make sure that newteachers get the support they need,schools in improvement mustdevelop a teacher mentoring program.

Finally, the plan has to spell-outthe role of parents and the commu-nity in helping the school toimprove. School improvement ishard work, but when the whole

school community focuses on thecommon goal of raising studentachievement, real progress can bemade. To make sure that schoolimprovement plans really affectchange, parents need to stayinvolved.

Every school improvement planshould answer the following questions:

What does the data tellus about the area thatneeds to be improved?

All data about student achieve-ment—test scores and other meas-ures—must be broken down byrace/ethnicity, by children living inpoverty, by children with disabilitiesand by children who are English-lan-guage learners. This is useful indetermining how well all childrenare being taught. The data will alsobe broken down by subject and usu-ally by grade level.

This data will tell us which chil-dren require additional help and inwhich areas. Additionally the data:

• Will tell us if math scores areimproving but reading scoresare not.

• Will tell us if academic per-formance varies among differ-ent ethnic groups.

• Will show us whether gapsbetween groups of students aregetting narrower or wider.

• Will help determine the type ofassistance needed by studentsnot at grade level.

Student achievement data aremore than just scores. When edu-cators look at student test results,they should be able to identify thespecific skills students havelearned and detect where addition-al help is needed. With the help of all this data, a school can concentrate its efforts for maxi-mum impact.

What strategies will be used to raiseachievement?

After the plan identifies whereefforts need to be focused, the planshould also say precisely what theschool will do to meet those needs.

If, for example, reading scores arevery low in a school, the schoolshould investigate what reading pro-grams have been successful in otherschools. Here are some examples ofwhat the school might do to improvereading scores:

• Adopt a research-based read-ing program with strong evi-dence of results with similarstudents;

• Give longer blocks of time toreading instruction;

• Hire a literacy coach to helpteachers learn how to usemore effective reading meth-ods in their classrooms;

• Provide extra time and supportto the students who are far-thest behind; and

• Hire a school reading special-ist to work with children whohave difficulty with reading.

Whatever strategies the schoolselects, the actions must be directedtoward the areas of highest need.

What professionaldevelopment will theschool provide to itsteachers?

All professionals—including doc-tors, lawyers, and engineers—needcontinuous training throughouttheir careers. This is called profes-sional development, and teachersand principals are no exception.Professional development is essen-tial to teachers and principals sincewe are constantly learning moreabout the most effective ways toeducate children. NCLB provides

Improving Your Schools: A Parent and Community Guide To No Child Left Behind 9

The Education Trust

Page 10: No Child Left Behind · No Child Left Behind Companion to:USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS. U sed effectively, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be an impor-tant

almost $3 billion for schools tofocus on professional development.

Effective professional developmentshould provide content knowledge forteachers and focus on improving class-room instruction. Professional devel-opment should focus on the specificareas where students need help and onspecific strategies for raising the quali-ty of curriculum and instruction.

New teachers and administratorshave a special need for extra support.Every school with an improvementplan should describe a mentoring pro-gram. The plan should explain specif-ically how more experienced teacherswill help their newer colleagues.

How will the school gethelp from the districtand state?

Schools should not be expected toimprove without assistance. Statesand districts have a responsibility tohelp schools that need to improve.For example, if the school is havingtrouble recruiting or retaining high-ly qualified teachers, the school dis-trict should provide extra trainingand support to the current teachersand help to recruit more qualifiedteachers. The school district shouldlook at the school’s budget to see ifmoney is being spent on activitieswhich are most likely to improvestudent achievement in the areasthat most need help. The state orschool district should also look atthe school’s curriculum and recom-mend more effective teachingstrategies, when applicable.

Some states have created schoolimprovement teams with expertisein raising achievement in strugglingschools. In addition to their ownresources, states receive federalmoney ($234 million in 2003 and atleast double that amount in 2004)to help schools effectively imple-ment their improvement plans.

How will parents beinvolved in the schoolimprovement process?

No Child Left Behind says thatschools must make special efforts toinvolve parents. Parents should benotified as soon as a school is identi-fied as needing improvement.Parents must be involved in develop-ing the school improvement planand in the implementation of theplan where possible. The schoolshould work with parents in makingsure their children are provided withthe extra support/resources theyneed. Parents should be notifiedwhen meetings are held to assess theprogress of the school, according tothe improvement plan.

FOR EXAMPLE:• The school should reach out to

parents and make specialefforts to make sure that par-ents are informed andinvolved. The school shouldnot simply send out notices toparents and assume that thosewho do not respond or attendare not interested.

• All notices from the schoolshould be understandable—notfilled with technical terms. Andall notices should be translatedinto languages that the parentsin that community understand.

• The school can use federal fundsto offer reading classes to parents,perhaps for parents who speakEnglish as a second language orfor parents who would like toimprove their own literacy skills.

• The school can use federal fundsto pay for childcare to allow par-ents to attend school programs.

What is your child’s schooldoing to encourage parentparticipation? What are you andyour community doing toconnect with your schools?

This guide is designed to assistCommunity-Based Organizations inproviding parents and communitymembers a better understanding ofthe No Child Left Behind Act.This will hopefully enable them toadvocate more effectively toimprove the education of all children.

Used correctly, the No Child LeftBehind Act is the muscle parentsand other advocates need to movetheir school and school district toprovide them with informationabout student progress and opportu-nities for learning. Parents must beable to determine the effectivenessof the educational instruction theirchildren receive. Only then canthey play a meaningful role in theeducational process.

This law can be effective whenthe efforts of key stakeholders, cou-pled with the determination of par-ents and students, combine tomake meaningful school reform areality. NCLB provides powerfulleverage for ensuring that all chil-dren have an opportunity to learna high quality curriculum deliveredby highly qualified teachers withhigh standards as the expectationfor all.

We hope this guide and theaccompanying Fact Sheets will bringabout a clearer understanding of theNCLB law. The law is paper;implementation is people. Our aim isto help parent and community groupsto make the law an effective advocacytool. There is no time to waste.Children take only one trip throughpublic education.

The enclosed Fact Sheets are designed to provide moredetailed information to assist youin using the law to help improvethe quality of education yourschool delivers to your child.

Improving Your Schools: A Parent and Community Guide To No Child Left Behind

The Education Trust

10

Page 11: No Child Left Behind · No Child Left Behind Companion to:USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS. U sed effectively, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be an impor-tant

Accountability- Policiesdeveloped to hold schools andschool systems responsible forthe academic results of theirstudents.

Achievement Gap- The differencein school achievement amongdifferent groups of students, suchas racial/ethnic groups, incomelevels, etc.

Assessment- Measuring studentperformance. This term is oftenused the same as testing.

AYP/Adequate Yearly Progress-A signaling system to tell whetherschools are on-track to teach allstudents what they need to knowin each school year.

Content Standards- Statementsof what students fromkindergarten through 12th grade

should know and be able to doin the core content areas. Forexample: English/Language Arts,Mathematics, Science andSocial Studies.

Curriculum- The subject materialthat teachers cover with studentsin class.

Data- Facts or figures from whichconclusions can be made;information.

Disaggregate- To breakdowninformation by different groups,either by race, ethnicity, incomelevels, gender, etc.

LEA/Local Educational Agency-A school district.

LEP/Limited English Proficiency(ELL/English Language Learners)-Individuals whose primary/nativelanguage is not English.

Opportunity Gap- Differences inresources available to differentschools, for example buildings,money and teachers, and otherresources such as those in thecommunity and at home:neighborhood libraries, personalcomputers, home referencematerials.

Professional Development- Theon-going training of teachers.

Proficiency- Means a student isable to do something he or she issupposed to do at that age andgrade level.

Supplemental Services-Services provided outside theregular school day to helpstudents reach proficiency.These are paid for with FederalTitle I funds.

GLOSSARY

Page 12: No Child Left Behind · No Child Left Behind Companion to:USING NCLB FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT FACT SHEETS. U sed effectively, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) can be an impor-tant

The Education Trust, Inc. was created to promote high academic

achievement for all students, at all levels—kindergarten through college.

While we know that all schools and colleges could better serve their

students, our work focuses on the schools and colleges most often left

behind in education improvement efforts: those serving Latino, African

American, Native American and low-income students.

The Education Trust works side-by-side with policy makers, parents, education

professionals, community and business leaders—in cities and towns across the

country—who are trying to transform their schools and colleges into

institutions that genuinely serve all students.We also share lessons learned in

these schools, colleges and communities with policy makers.

About The Education Trust

202-293-1217 • 1725 K Street, NW • Suite 200Washington, DC 20006

www.edtrust.org