The Following article, excerpted below, appeared in the Hampton
Roads (VA) Daily Press (3/27/06): "…Many of the criticisms
levied against No Child Left Behind are unfair and untrue. It is
not massive federal intrusion. States devise their own
standards, craft their own curriculum, set their own goals,
write their own tests and concoct their own definitions of
progress…." "Until it came along, some of the most significant
problems in public education… were resolutely ignored by our
schools and our state Department of Education. "No Child Left
Behind forced us to pay attention to a profound and troubling
inequity in public education - the fact that many schools are
not doing justice to minority and poor children…." "Until No
Child Left Behind mandated that achievement data for various
groups be made public, school boards and the state of Virginia
generally ignored this issue, perpetuating a problem with far-
reaching and costly consequences. "No Child Left Behind forced
us to pay attention to the dropout rate…."