That way these three states hope to limit the number of schools that may fail to make adequate yearly progress (AYP); failing to achieve AYP means penalties must be paid. The Superintendent of Public Instruction for Idaho schools, Tom Luna, recently wrote the following to the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan: "Idaho, like many other states, does not have the luxury of spending time and limited resources on meeting the rigid requirements of an outdated accountability system… [and] if Congress and the administration will not act, states like Idaho will" (McNeil, p
" The research for this data -- prepared by Rice University and the University of Texas-Austin -- resulted from the analysis of 271,000 students. Some sixty percent of African-American students, 75% of Latino students, and 80% of ESL students did not graduate within five years" of starting high school (Science Daily)
However, the Bush budget for fiscal year 2004 has slashed after-school program funding from $1 billion to $600 million. In fact, "more than three-quarters of requests for federal after-school grants went unfunded" (Cardman, 2003) in 2002
For example, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Ted Kirsch, recently called NCLB "the biggest unfunded mandate ever" (Kirsch, 2003). The Leadership Conference on Civil rights issued an "I" grade for "incomplete," and urged the administration to "keep America's neediest children as a priority" (Gorman, 2003)
" There are other thorny issues regarding Bush's leadership in education, and with his administration's approach to implementing NCLB. For example, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Ted Kirsch, recently called NCLB "the biggest unfunded mandate ever" (Kirsch, 2003)
And while after school programs are gutted by Bush, other issues, such as school prayer, appear to be high on the list of importance. NCLB contains covenants that require every school district to certify in writing (Simpson, 2002) that its schools do not "prevent" or "deny" children's rights to pray, if they wish
S. fourth-graders can read at a minimum proficiency level (Rogers, 2009 )
The bill forces schools to issue easy-to-interpret report cards that break down a student's progress, including those with learning disabilities. It establishes proficiency levels specifically for the disabled student in order to hold the school district responsible for ensuring adequate education is received by all students (staff, 2009)
4 billion allotted to aid local schools, an increase of 41.4% over the 2000 levels (Hauck 2002)