No Child Left Behind Reauthorization  In 2002, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was Reauthorized and named the No Child Left Behind Act (NCL of 2002.  I remember saying at the time that NCLB was going to be a blessing for children with disabilities, and that many children with disabilities would learn to read and write due to NCLB. I will later discuss my opinion of the Acts effectiveness but would like to discuss the main components of NCLB.

According to the No Child Left Behind Parent Guide published by the US Department of Education in 2003, NCLB would do for parents and children:

1. Support learning in the early years, thereby preventing many learning difficulties that may arise later
2. Provide more information for parents about their child’s progress
3. Alert parents to important information on the performance of their child’s school
4. Give children and parents a lifeline
5. Improve teaching and learning by providing better information to teachers and principals
6. Ensure that teacher quality is a high priority
7. Gives  more resources to schools
8. It allows more flexibility     and
9. It focuses on what works

No Child Left Behind was finally focusing on school accountability, and had sanctions in place for schools that did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). According to NCLB, schools had to have 100% of their student’s proficient by the year 2013-2014.

Has NCLB been successful, in my opinion? Absolutely not!! Why? Because the US Department of Education (US DOE) immediately started watering down NCLB.. According to Arne Duncan, the Head of the US. DOE 82% of the school districts in the US will not meet AYP this year 2011-2012, and would be considered failing schools. So instead of standing up to school districts Arne Duncan and President Obama have decided to make changes to NCLB, and begin giving waivers to all states that ask, so that they will not receive the sanctions put in place when NCLB became law. This is because Congress cannot come to an agreement on how to change NCLB in the reauthorization.

Melody Barnes the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council has told states: “We want to deliver a very important message: Relief is on the way.” The Obama administration has a plan to offer flexibility to states by using its waiver authority.  Parents and advocates for children with disabilities have been extremely upset by this announcement by the Obama administration. To placate parents Duncan states that the applications for Waivers will be Peer Reviewed, whatever that means!

Three states have already applied for these waivers: Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky; while three other states (Idaho, South Dakota, and Montana) have given notice that they will be applying. I believe in the end-all states will apply for waivers and NCLB will be dead in the water!!!  More children harmed!

If I could I would scream at Arne Duncan and President Obama: “We had state flexibility, and many children were left behind without learning to read and write!! Wake up and stop letting school districts get away with not teaching our children. What a waste of good public money!!  Nothing will change until the US Department of Education stops catering to school districts and starts catering to their constituents—which are children!! Children whose lives are being wasted and ruined forever, because schools refuse to give them an appropriate education to allow them to work and participate in their adult lives!