NCLB Requirements – A Brief Summary

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Under the new federal education law, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), there are many new requirements for districts, schools, and teachers. This is a brief overview of those federal requirements.

Annual Assessments

Each year, students in grades 3-10 take annual assessments as required by the state. Those are the Benchmarks for grades 3, 6, and 8; the TerraNova/CAT6 for grades 4, 5, 7, and 9; and the High School Graduation Qualifying Exam for grade 10. In addition to being used for NCLB requirements, the HSGQE is the test the students must pass in order to receive a high school diploma.

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)

Adequate Yearly Progress is the minimum level of proficiency that school districts and schools must achieve each year as determined under the No Child Left Behind Act. To make AYP, a school and district must meet the required participation rate, the annual measurable objectives in language arts and math, and the “other academic indicator.” These terms are defined below.

Annual Measurable Objective (AMO)

AMO is the percent of students who must be proficient on the above exams as required by the state. Not only must the school as a whole meet the AMO, but each specified subgroup of students must also meet the AMO. The goal of NCLB is to have all students be proficient in language arts and math by 2013-2014. Science assessments will be added in 2007. These are the AMO's for Alaska by year and subject:

Participation
95% of all students, grades 3-10, must participate in state exams. This is determined both by school and by state-identified subgroup. Subgroups of 20 or fewer are not considered for AYP determinations.

Subgroups
The subgroups that must meet the above standards, as currently defined by the state, are the following: Caucasian, African-American, Asian, Native Alaskan, American Indian, Hispanic, Economically Disadvantaged, Students with Disabilities, and English Language Learners.

Other Academic Indicator

Schools must meet the “other academic indicator” in order to meet AYP. For high schools, this is graduation rate, and for elementary and middle schools, this is an average daily attendance rate.

Graduation rate
Schools with 12th grade must meet the graduation rate of 55.58%. This is determined by dividing the number of graduates by the number of graduates plus those who did not graduate from that class (or dropped out over the course of their four years in high school). It is of note that students who receive a certificate of achievement rather than a diploma will not be counted as graduates.

Average Daily Attendance
Elementary and middle schools must meet an average daily attendance rate of 85%

Consequences of not meeting AYP

For Schools Receiving Title I Fund

For Schools Not Receiving Title I Funds

For Districts Receiving Title I Funds (All Alaska Districts)

Teacher Quality

By June 30, 2006, all teachers who teach core academic subjects must be highly qualified according to federal definition. In addition to being fully certified by the state and having a bachelor’s degree, they must also have demonstrated competence in their core content area. Teachers can demonstrate this competence by having a degree in the subject, a major (or major equivalent) in the subject, passing a state-approved test in the subject, fulfilling the requirements of a formal state evaluation process, or earning advanced/national certification. [Teacher FAQ]

Core academic subject

By federal and state definition, the core academic subjects are English, reading or language arts, civics and government, mathematics, economics, science, foreign language, history, geography, arts, social studies, and speech communications

Paraprofessional Quality

By January 8, 2006, paraprofessionals serving in Title 1 schools or programs must be highly qualified. These paraprofessionals must have a high school diploma (or equivalent), and must either have an AA degree (or 48 hour equivalent) or must have demonstrated their competence via a state-approved test and direct observation. [Paraprofessional FAQ]

Persistently Dangerous Schools and Victims’ Rights

Under the law, a school with excessive problems with violence and weapons can be declared “persistently dangerous.” Should a school receive this designation, all students in the school have the right to request a transfer to one of two schools selected by the district. Transportation does not have to be provided by the district, however. There are currently NO schools in Alaska that have received this designation. A second provision of this part of the law gives victims of violent crime the right to request a transfer to one of two schools selected by the district. Again, the district is not required to provide transportation.

Parent notifications and involvement

Under NCLB, additional notifications must be sent to parents. These notifications range from AYP and school designation information to notifications of new parent rights to special notifications for Title 1 parents and parents of English language learners. Additionally, we must often translate these notifications into multiple languages in order to provide information to parents. NCLB also asks for additional parent involvement, and parents are encouraged to be part of planning and goal-setting processes.

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