The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (No Child Left Behind) is a landmark in education reform designed to improve student achievement and change the culture of America's schools. President George W. Bush describes this law as the 'cornerstone of my administration.' Clearly, our children are our future and, as President Bush has expressed, “Too many of our neediest children are being left behind.”
With the passage of No Child Left Behind, Congress reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)—the principal federal law affecting education from kindergarten through high school. In amending ESEA, the new law represents a sweeping overhaul of federal efforts to support elementary and secondary education in the United States. It is built on four common-sense pillars: accountability for results; an emphasis on doing what works based on scientific research; expanded parental options; and expanded local control and flexibility.
No Child Left Behind does the following for parents and children:
- Supports learning in the early years, thereby preventing many learning difficulties that may arise later
- Provides more information for parents about their child's progress
- Alerts parents to important information on the performance of their child's school
- Gives children and parents a lifeline
- Improves teaching and learning by providing better information to teachers and principals
- Ensures that teacher quality is high
- Gives more resources to schools
- Allows more flexibility
- Focuses on what works
No Child Left Behind puts a special emphasis on implementing educational programs and practices that have been demonstrated to be effective through rigorous scientific research. For example, The Reading First program makes federal funds available based on what researchers have discovered about how to successfully teach children to read and on the findings of the National Reading Panel Report on the five key areas of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
The Early Reading First program makes federal funds available to support local efforts to enhance the early language and literacy development of preschool children by the age-appropriate development of the following research-based language and literacy areas: oral language, phonological awareness, print awareness, and alphabetic knowledge.