No Child Left Behind

On January 8, 2002, when the No Child Left Behind Act became the law of the land; we began a new era of education in our nation's history. Democrats and Republicans in Congress joined together to improve the educational opportunities for every American child.

Accountability, local control and flexibility, new options for parents, and record funding for what works are now the cornerstones of our education system. If your child isn't learning, you'll know why. If your school isn't performing, you'll have new options and the school will receive additional help.

No Child Left Behind puts the focus on instruction and ods that have been proven to work. AGAPE has included the NCLB goals into our School Continuous Improvement Plan. These goals were shared at our last site council meeting.

The reforms of No Child Left Behind are supporting AGAPE move toward our common goal of making your daughters have high expectations and reach levels of high achievement.

Below you will find recommendations for helping your daughter reach the high expectations of the No Child Left Behind Act.

AT HOME   Things you can do to help your daughter succeed in school: 1.      Continue to encourage your daughter to read. Don’t let television, video games, or friends absorb all of her free time. 2.      Talk to your daughter about her specific interests related to school –subjects or teachers they like, books they are reading, projects they are working on, etc. 3.      Discuss their choice of courses with them so they are well prepared for different options after high school. 4.      Begin discussing with your daughter what she might like to do after she graduates from high school. 5.      Know your daughters friends, where they live, and if possible, their parents. 6.      If your daughter works part-time, make sure this doesn’t interfere with schoolwork, parenting or getting good nights sleep during the week. 7.      Continue to celebrate school successes with appropriate rewards. Even though your daughter may seem embarrassed, your daughter will appreciate your enthusiasm for her good work.

AT SCHOOL   Things you can do to help your daughter succeed in school: 1.      Get a copy of your daughter’s schedules each semester. 2.      Contact Mary Gannon the guidance counselor. Discuss with her find what is available to your daughter in choosing a college and applying for and finding scholarships and loans. 3.      Volunteer for school activities, chaperone a school field trip; come to parent-teacher conferences and school events. 4.      Serve on school committees that involve parents.

(the following is an excerpt from the NCLB website. http://www.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/index.html)

WHAT NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND DOES FOR PARENTS AND CHILDREN

Supports learning in the early years, thereby preventing many learning difficulties that may arise later

Children who enter school with language skills and pre-reading skills (e.g., understanding that print reads from left to right and top to bottom) are more likely to learn to read well in the early grades and succeed in later years. In fact, research shows that most reading problems faced by adolescents and s are the result of problems that could have been prevented through good instruction in their early childhood years (Snow, Burns and Griffin 1998). It is never too early to start building language skills by talking with and reading to children. No Child Left Behind targets resources for early childhood education so that all youngsters get the right start.

Provides more information for parents about their child's progress

Under No Child Left Behind, each state must measure every public school student's progress in reading and math in each of grades 3 through 8 and at least once during grades 10 through 12. By school year 2007-2008, assessments (or testing) in science will be underway. These assessments must be aligned with state academic content and achievement standards. They will provide parents with objective data on where their child stands academically.

Alerts parents to important information on the performance of their child's school

No Child Left Behind requires states and school districts to give parents easy-to-read, detailed report cards on schools and districts, telling them which ones are succeeding and why. Included in the report cards are student achievement data broken out by race, ethnicity, gender, English language proficiency, migrant status, disability status and low-income status; as well as important information about the professional qualifications of teachers. With these provisions, No Child Left Behind ensures that parents have important, timely information about the schools their children attend--whether they are performing well or not for all children, regardless of their background.

Gives children and parents a lifeline

In this new era of education, children will no longer be trapped in the end of low-performing schools. Under No Child Left Behind, such schools must use their federal funds to make needed improvements. In the event of a school's continued poor performance, parents have options to ensure that their children receive the high-quality education to which they are entitled. That might mean that children can transfer to higher-performing schools in the area or receive supplemental educational services in the community, such as tutoring, after-school programs or remedial classes.

Improves teaching and learning by providing better information to teachers and principals

Annual tests to measure children's progress provide teachers with independent information about each child's strengths and weaknesses. With this knowledge, teachers can craft lessons to make sure each student meets or exceeds the standards. In addition, principals can use the data to assess exactly how much progress each teacher's students have made and to better inform decisions about how to run their schools.

Ensures that teacher quality is a high priority

No Child Left Behind defines the qualifications needed by teachers and paraprofessionals who work on any facet of classroom instruction. It requires that states develop plans to achieve the goal that all teachers of core academic subjects be highly qualified by the end of the 2005-06 school year. States must include in their plans annual, measurable objectives that each local school district* and school must meet in moving toward the goal; they must report on their progress in the annual report cards.

Gives more resources to schools

Today, more than $7,000 on average is spent per pupil by local, state and federal taxpayers. States and local school districts are now receiving more federal funding than ever before for all programs under No Child Left Behind: $23.7 billion, most of which will be used during the 2003-04 school year. This represents an increase of 59.8 percent from 2000 to 2003. A large portion of these funds is for grants under Title I of ESEA: Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged. Title I grants are awarded to states and local education agencies to help states and school districts improve the education of disadvantaged students; turn around low-performing schools; improve teacher quality; and increase choices for parents. (For more about Title I, see the introductory paragraph to Q-and-As.) For fiscal year (FY) 2003, funding for Title I alone is $11.7 billion--an increase of 33 percent since the passage of No Child Left Behind. President Bush's FY 2004 budget request would increase spending on Title I by 48 percent since he took office.

Allows more flexibility

In exchange for the strong accountability, No Child Left Behind gives states and local education agencies more flexibility in the use of their federal education funding. As a result, principals and administrators spend less time filling out forms and dealing with federal red tape. They have more time to devote to students' needs. They have more freedom to implement innovations and allocate resources as policymakers at the state and local levels see fit, thereby giving local people a greater opportunity to affect decisions regarding their schools' programs.

Focuses on what works

No Child Left Behind puts a special emphasis on implementing educational programs and practices that have been clearly strated to be effective through rigorous scientific research. Federal funding will be targeted to support such programs. For example, the Reading First program makes federal funds available to help reading teachers in the early grades strengthen old skills and gain new ones in instructional techniques that scientifically based research has shown to be effective.

If you have more questions about how this law effects AGAPE, please contact:

Lois Vosika-Weir

AGAPE

Program Coordinator

651-228-7746