Classroom » Reference
No Child Left Behind
Learn more about No Child Left Behind
- Food Helped Make the Difference
- These x-rays from the 1920s demonstrate the differences between children developing normally and those who develop rickets. The title of the black and white image is “Food Helped to Make the Difference.” There are four x-rays. The top set shows...
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- Mother and child figure from West Africa
- Seated mother and child, from the Bamana people of Mali. The figure conveys the importance of motherhood. In this figure, the hat with amulets and the knife strapped to her left arm suggest a strong protector.
- Format: image/photograph
- Balinese children stand at edge of walled compound
- Five Balinese children--two barely visible--stand peering out from the edge of a walled compound. The wall's corner post is seen at right and lush greenery frames the children at left. The girl at the left carries a baby in a sling on her back. The infant...
- Format: image/photograph
- Feeding a Hog
- This black and white photograph shows two little boys, Dallas and David Proctor, standing next to a huge black and white hog. The younger child is standing on the hog's right side and is holding a dried ear of corn. The older child is standing on the other...
- Format: image/photograph
- Several people, including woman with small child, look from street into residence
- Several people, including woman carrying a small child, look from the street into a building in a residential Hanoi neighborhood. An older child, a young man, and another person stand near the woman. The two-story, French-style building has a cement and stucco...
- Format: image/photograph
No Child Left Behind is a 2001 federal law placing requirements on state schools in four broad areas: increased accountability, implementing research-based instructional strategies, increasing parental options, and expanding local control in schools. Specific goals include 100% student proficiency on state achievement tests by 2013–2014 and “highly qualified” teachers in every classroom.
Additional information
While educators favor policies and practices that “leave no child behind,” critics of NCLB argue that the federal policy (a) increases the already contentious practice of high-stakes testing, (b) unfairly targets already under-funded schools, and (c) does not provide adequate funding to implement requirements of the act.
Examples and resources
The Department of Education’s NCLB website provides comprehensive information about the No Child Left Behind Act. The NCDPI website on NCLB discusses NCLB in relation to North Carolina’s ABCs Accountability Program.
A more critical perspective of NCLB can be found on the Rethinking Schools website.
