The ABCs of No Child Left Behind

The No Child Left Behind Act is akin to tax law.

It's impossible to grasp all at once.

And, as tax law tends to encourage many taxpayers to do each April 15, the education law causes Utah schools to jump through a series of hoops to make it best work for them and their students.

Utah schools' actions, from investing in new programs to bringing in tutors, will affect about a half million children every year. Utah also is one of 14 states dubbed "tough graders" on standardized testing by The Princeton Review.

With such changes afoot, parents might wonder how the law affects them, their children and their schools.

Below are questions and answers to help make sense of the law in terms of testing. More details are posted on the State Office of Education's Web site, www.usoe.k12.ut.us/default/May03AYP.htm.

Where does No Child Left Behind come from? It's part of President Bush's initiative, rooted in his Texas governorship, to hold schools more accountable for student achievement by publishing test scores, rewarding high-achieving institutions and helping or penalizing chronically low-performing ones.

Who is affected? Everyone, from gifted to special education students. Test scores for all groups of students are publicly reported. All groups are expected to meet state goals through 2014, when everyone in every state must score as "proficient" on state exams.

Schools are expected to help every student improve, whether it requires more tutors, an invitation to attend a higher-performing school, or new programs to improve teaching and learning. This could be beneficial for students who have struggled and received little help in the past.

What do educators say about the law? Some applaud the federal goal but at the same time feel overwhelmed and wish they had more money to help struggling students. Some hate that schools' fates hinge on a single test score and fear teachers will end up teaching to the test. Others believe that if schools do what's best for learning, test scores will improve.

There's also a movement to refuse to go along with No Child Left Behind. Hawaii did just that, and lost federal funding as a result. Utah is talking about following suit. At stake is $100 million, in a cash-strapped state that already has federally required testing systems in place.