No Child Left Behind needs some work Passed by congress in late
2001and signed by President George W. Bush one year after his
inauguration, the No Child Left Behind Act ( nclb) is the most
ambitious federal education statute ever. It overhauled and
expanded Washington ’s role in education, rewrote the rules, and
set out to boost pupil achievement, narrow a host of “learning
gaps,” and assure every student a “highly qualified teacher.”
The law’s main engine, however, is an historic attempt to impose
a results-based accountability regime on schools across the
land. After five years of experience with a statute that aims to
produce “universal proficiency” (in math and reading, mainly in
grades 3–8) by 2014, and with reauthorization looming, it’s time
to draw some conclusions about how nclb has unfolded on the
ground — and how it ought to be changed. Though nclb is
routinely labeled a “Bush” law — in no small part because the
White House has proclaimed it a great domestic achievement while
prominent Democrats hav