‘No Child Left Behind’ to be Reauthorized with Significant Changes

The “No Child Left Behind” Act will be reauthorized in 2008 but with some significant changes, predicts Dr. Joyce Stallworth, professor of education at The University of Alabama.

Stallworth says the following provisions will be included in the reauthorization:

• Some increases in funding because Congress has realized that unfunded mandates are not working

• Clarification on the meaning of “adequate yearly progress” because different states have different processes for measuring student achievement

• Less reliance on standardized testing as the single measure of what students know and are able to do and more uses of multiple performance assessments

Increased efforts to address the staggering dropout rates in high schools across the country