No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was signed by President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002 and is designed to improve student achievement by the end of the 2013-2014 school year. NCLB is a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which was the principal law affecting education from kindergarten through high school. NCLB is built on four basic ideas: accountability for results, an emphasis on doing what works based on scientific research, expanded parental options, and expanded local control and flexibility. Under NCLB a school will not be labeld “failing” but “in need of improvement” if that school does not meet its state’s definition of “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) for two straight years. The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has defined AYP under three guidelines:

1. meeting the annual measurable objective (AMO) which is the percent of proficient and distinguished rankings in reading and mathematics for all students
2. a 95 percent participation rate for all students
3. Demonstrating improvement on the “other academic indicator”, which is
   1. For elementary schools this is the CATS accountability index. Rate of improvement will be determined on an individual school basis
   2. For high schools this will be the graduation rate. It must be higher than the previous year or meet at or above the target graduation rate set by KDE.
   3. For schools with elementary through high school, or middle through high school, both accountability index and graduation rates will be factors.

No Child Left Behind is designed to help everyone concerned with the welfare of an individual student and the student body. NCLB will help:

• Parents have more information about their children’s academic strengths and weaknesses and will know how well schools are performing. They will have other options and resources for helping their children if their schools are chronically in need of improvement.
• Teachers will have the training and resources they need for teaching effectively, using curricula that are grounded in scientifically based research. Annual testing lets them know areas in which students need extra attention.

NCLB also allows principals, superintendents, school boards, chief state school officers, governors, and community leaders and volunteer groups to see the fruits of the school’s labor, and see when and where the school needs improvement.

NCLB recognizes that for these improvements, teachers must be “highly qualified” as defined by the law. This means that individual teachers must have a bachelor’s degree, a full state certification and licensure as defined by the state of Kentucky, and demonstrated competency, as defined by Kentucky, in each core academic subject he or she teaches all by the end of the 2005-2006 school year. It also requires that all newly hired teachers in Title I (Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged) programs or schools be highly qualified immediately. Special Education teachers and teachers of the English language need only be highly qualified if they teach a core academic subject to their students, such as language arts, math, science, history, government, geography, economics, the arts, and foreign languages. NCLB also allows each individual state to develop a definition of highly qualified that is consistent with the law and the needs of the state.

The law also addresses substitute teachers and recognizes their role in the classroom and the school as a temporary replacement for the teacher. Short-term substitutes do not need to meet the highly qualified teaching requirements, it is, however, strongly recommended that long-term substitutes meet these requirements. It will be up to the state and district to define “long-term” as applied to substitute teachers.

Paraprofessionals and teachers’ aides are also discussed. The law states very clearly that people in these roles may only provide instructional support under the direct supervision of a teacher. They must also have at least an associate’s degree or two years of college, or they must meet a standard of quality through a formal state or local assessment. They do not need to meet these standards if their role does not involve facilitating instruction, such as hall monitors.

For more information about the No Child Left Behind Law, please visit the U.S. Department of Education’s website at http://www.ed.gov.