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No Child Left Behind
SUMMARY OF H.R. 1 - No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Signed into law January 8, 2002
Note: On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed into law
H.R. 1, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Read more about
the bill signing:
H.R. 1 gives students a chance, parents a choice, and schools
a charge to be the best in the world.
Giving states and local schools more flexibility will improve student performance.
But real accountability means imposing real consequences for chronic failure.
H.R. 1 gives parents the option of removing their children from failing schools and sending them to a different public school or a private school after three years of chronic failure.
Closing the Achievement Gap
Nearly 70 percent of inner city and rural fourth-graders cannot read at a basic level; low-income students lag behind their counterparts by an average of 20 percentile points on national assessment tests.
The academic achievement gap between rich and poor, Anglo and minority remains wide, and in some cases is growing wider.
No Child Left Behind refocuses federal education spending back toward its original goal of helping America's disadvantaged students.
Under H.R. 1, states and local schools that make significant progress in closing the achievement gap will receive bonuses.
States that fail to show adequate yearly progress for their disadvantaged students will be subject to losing a portion of their administrative funds.
Sanctions will be based on a state's failure to narrow the achievement gap in meeting adequate yearly progress requirements in math and reading in grades three through eight.
Providing Flexibility to States and School Districts
Paperwork mandates and regulations force states and local school districts to sacrifice student achievement to comply with bureaucracy.
H.R. 1 gives states and local schools additional flexibility to improve student performance by cutting red tape and consolidating a host of programs to ensure that state and local officials can meet the unique needs of students.
The bill gives more schools the flexibility to choose the school-wide approach for programs that serve disadvantaged students so that more schools have the flexibility to combine their federal program dollars and use them to improve the entire school.
H.R. 1 provides additional flexibility by authorizing states and school districts to "transfer" funds between programs -- up to 35 percent at the local level without state permission, and up to 100 percent with state sign-off.
Promoting Accountability
States and school districts must be held accountable for improving student achievement. Too often, low expectations have translated into poor results. This tacit tolerance of mediocrity has had devastating consequences.
Since 1990, Congress has spent more than $80 billion on the Title I program to help disadvantaged students, but achievement scores remain generally stagnant.
H.R. 1 establishes a comprehensive accountability system, including asking states to design and implement annual math and reading tests for students in grades three through eight.
The plan provides federal dollars for states to design the tests.
By asking states and local schools to develop annual assessments, H.R. 1 would, for the first time, demand real results from public schools that receive federal education resources.
It establishes a system of rewards and sanctions for states and school districts to hold them accountable for increasing student achievement.
Expanding School and Parental Choice
Since 1990, Congress has spent more than $80 billion on the Title I program to help disadvantaged students, but achievement scores remain generally stagnant.
There must be an escape hatch for students trapped in failing schools that do not teach and will not change.
Disadvantaged students in Title I schools that fail to make adequate progress for three consecutive years would be able to use federal dollars to pay for tuition at another public or a private school, or to receive supplemental educational services from a provider of choice.
The bill establishes an Educational Opportunity Fund to set up a limited number of demonstration projects in order to research the effectiveness of school choice programs in improving the academic performance of low-income students.
Students attending unsafe schools or who are victims of violent crime would be able to transfer to a safe alternative, or to private school if space is not available in a safe school.
Innovative Program funds could be used for public school choice, or private school choice for disadvantaged students in failing schools.
Empowering parents to remove their children from low-performing schools -- even if only as a last resort -- can compel failing schools to improve and help to close the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their peers.
Promoting Charter Schools
The bill creates a "charter" option for states and districts committed to accountability and reform (which parallels "Academic Achievement for All" bill (Straight A's) that the House passed in the 106th Congress).
Interested states or school districts will be able to enter into a "charter" agreement with the Secretary of Education, which will give significant flexibility in the use of federal education dollars to meet state and local priorities, in return for submitting a five-year performance agreement to the secretary establishing specific goals for increasing student performance.
During the course of the charter, states or school districts will be subject to strict accountability standards for improving student achievement, review during the course of the charter, and sanctions for failing to meet the terms of the agreement.
A state or school district would lose "charter" status if student achievement and other performance indicators as agreed to in the charter do not improve.
Reading First Initiative
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 38 percent of fourth graders cannot read at a basic level -- that is, they cannot read and understand a short paragraph that one would find in a simple children's book.
Research continues to show that reading failure has devastating consequences on self-esteem, social development, and opportunities for advanced education and meaningful employment.
Students best learn through explicit, systematic phonics, high-frequency sight vocabulary, quality literature, and comprehension strategies that provide reading practice.
H.R. 1 focuses on effective, proven methods of reading instruction based on scientific research.
The President proposes an extra $600 million next year for reading programs -- tripling federal literacy funding from the present $300 million to $900 million in 2002.
The President would spend $5 billion over the next five years on reading programs for children between kindergarten and third grade.
Improving Teacher Quality
No Child Left Behind is premised on granting flexibility with accountability. The more than 15,000 school districts around the nation have differing needs when it comes to ensuring their students have quality teachers in the classroom.
Consequently, H.R. 1 will not fund a separate program that can only be used by school districts for class size reduction.
Instead, school districts will have the flexibility to use funds under this proposal to reduce class sizes by recruiting, hiring, and training teachers, or on professional development.
States will be held accountable for raising teacher quality, requiring that states use scientific research-based professional development, and encouraging states to develop tools to measure teacher quality based on student academic achievement.
Promoting English Fluency
There is no evidence that encouraging schools to quickly transition limited English proficient (LEP) students into English-speaking classrooms will increase dropout rates.
To the contrary, research has shown that English language learners, when compared with their English-fluent peers, tend to receive lower grades and often score below the average on standardized math and reading assessments.
Instead of making excuses, H.R. 1 focuses federal funding on teaching LEP children how to speak English by holding states and school districts accountable for ensuring that students are proficient in English after three years of attending school in the United States.
The bill also requires local educational agencies to obtain parental consent prior to placing children in an instructional program that is not taught primarily in English.
Enhancing Education Technology Programs
H.R. 1 streamlines and consolidates federal education technology programs into a performance-based grant program that sends more money directly to schools.
By eliminating duplicative programs, the bill ensures that schools will not have to submit multiple grant applications and waste precious dollars on administrative expenses.
The bill improves and expands programs that train teachers to use education technology.
Giving states and local school districts flexibility to develop innovative education technology programs will increase student achievement.
Safe Schools for the 21st Century
H.R. 1 combines the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Act, and reauthorizes the Gun Free Schools Act -- it will allow local school districts to determine how best to allocate funds for drug and violence prevention and before- and after-school activities.
The bill allows states to give consideration to religious organizations on the same basis as other nongovernmental organizations when awarding after-school grants.
The measure gives victims of school-based crimes or students trapped in persistently dangerous schools a safe alternative by expanding school choice and requiring states to report to parents on school safety.
By providing teachers with limited civil litigation immunity, the bill empowers them to remove violent and persistently disruptive students from the classroom.
Improving Math and Science Education
Among the underlying causes for the poor performance of U.S. students in the areas of math and science, three problems must be addressed -- too many teachers teaching out-of-field; too few students taking advanced coursework; and too few schools offering a challenging curriculum and textbooks.
H.R. 1 establishes the Math and Science Partnership program to provide funds through competitive grants for states to join with institutions of higher education in strengthening K-12 math and science education.
States must award 15 percent of the funds on a competitive basis to eligible partnerships for math and science programs.
Partnerships will focus on strengthening the quality of math and science instruction in elementary and secondary schools and could include such activities as making math and science curricula more rigorous, improving math and science professional development, and attracting math and science majors to teaching.
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