is going to hold a one day conference in March in Washington in hopes of fixing the No Child Left Behind Bill.

looks at how the No Child Left Behind Act is working in eight school districts. The school district is home to 42,000 public school students and around 22,000 private school students. From the class of 2005 26% went on to a two-year college while 68% went to a four-year college.

Things they liked about the NCLB bill were Accountability, Striving to close the achievement gap, Family connections, preparing children to achieve standards, professional development benefits, and finally addressing the overall quality of education.

Some challenges and negative things about this bill were, funding problems, performance of educators as it pertains to the “highly qualified teacher” rules of the bill, meeting year 2014 goals, overemphasis on testing, impact on curriculum, data problem, and English Language Learners just to name a few.

A couple of recommendations they give is setting aside federal money for after-school programs for low-performing schools, private schools need to give out same performance information, and base accountability only on grades 4 and 8.

I found this report to be a nice read and certainly something I would love to see more areas in the US do.

in an article that the No Child Left Behind Bill is draining resources for gifted students. The article says that having all students be proficient by 2014 is causing money to be drained from gifted programs to spend on other programs.

the school board in its fight over the NCLB rule and testing requirements immigrant students.

reports Maidu High which is at rick for not meeting NCLB standards. The article says that students love to be no shows at proficiency exams.

a nice long article on feelings from teachers and students on the NCLB bill.