News Archive

No Child Left Behind to Impact This Summer

(June 15 - Washington, DC) Around the country, public schools and students with disabilities are feeling the first major affects of the two-year-old No Child Left Behind Act this summer.

Many parents are blaming relatively small populations of students enrolled in special education for schools that fail to meet testing standards.

One parent in North Carolina told The News and Observer in Raleigh, "Whenever you're trying to do a lot of good things with some really struggling kids, whether it be poor or disabled, it really makes your statistics look bad."

Also, as reported in the New York Times earlier this month, several states including Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Wisconsin, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. are trying to circumvent the law by grouping students enrolled in special education into larger student categories to hide lower test scores.

The law requires schools to measure "Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)," the combined performance of all students in the school or district as well as the performance of specific sub-groups: students who are low income, students from major racial or ethnic groups, students with disabilities and students with limited English proficiency.

If any sub-group doesn't meet state-set testing standards, the entire school may be deemed deficient. If a school is found deficient for two consecutive years, the school must allow students to transfer to a higher performing school in the district, taking their Title I funds with them. A deficient school must also develop a plan to boost testing scores.

The law also calls for tough measures against schools that continue to fail to meet standards in subsequent years, including replacing school staff and state take-over.

Maryland, for example, has proposed excluding from AYP assessments any group that makes up less than 15 percent of the student population in the state or district. If Maryland and other states succeed, students with disabilities or limited English proficiency will be largely eliminated from the law's yearly accountability assessment.

For more information about No Child Left Behind and how it is affecting students with disabilities, contact Janna Starr at 800-872-5827.

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