Preliminary Results

NCLB went into effect two years ago, meaning that each state should now be 1/6th of the way to having all students proficient in all subjects. Schools are starting to fail and be put on the underperforming list. In New York and Chicago, so many parents of students at underperforming schools have requested to have their children transferred to schools that are meeting the standards that the districts are swamped. There are not enough vacancies at schools performing well to accommodate all the inner-city school refugees. Both school districts now stand in violation of the federal law (as well as many others I expect) but no one has yet brought suit. In Florida, Tennessee, Missouri and West Virginia, nearly half or more of schools are not meeting the new benchmarks (source). We are beginning to see the effects of Bush�s policy and the failure of the federal government to afford the amount of time and money it will take to �leave no child behind.� Clinton had a similar program called �Goals 2000� that failed to make any difference and simply faded into dust when schools did not meet the mark in 2000. Will No Child Left Behind simply be ignored and forgotten? For all its flaws, I hope not. Many inner-city school districts have said that it�s pressure is their only hope for the reform they need.