What is the purpose of the No Child Left Behind Act?

The purpose and mission of the No Child Left Behind Act is to eliminate the achievement gap that exists between groups of students within our nation's schools.

A glaring disparity exists in the achievement of Black, Hispanic, and students living in poverty when compared to white and more affluent students in the subjects of reading and mathematics.

In 2003, 39 percent of white fourth graders scored at the proficient level in reading, while only 12 percent of Black students and 14 percent of Hispanic students scored at the proficient level in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the "Nation's Report Card." These results serve as a serious call to action!

Many schools are eliminating the achievement gap, accomplishing what some once thought was impossible. In rural Minnesota, the Cloquet school district completely reduced the gap in math and now Native American students on average outperform the district average! (View The Education Commission of the State case study:  PDF (880K))

Tools for Teacher Leaders:

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Education funded the National Center for Educational Accountability, which provides a tool that school teams can use to conduct a Best Practice Self-Audit for continuous school improvement. The National Center's Best Practice Framework provides an organizational schema to examine the practices of consistently high-performing school systems. Using The Framework, created following years of study at hundreds of high-performing schools across the nation, you can audit your own practices.