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Educators Brace for Large Numbers of Schools in Improvement

Even at the outset of No Child Left Behind, when Delaware’s education department issued its first set of annual student achievement targets, state education secretary Valerie Woodruff knew “there would be a time when this would become a perfect storm.”

Like many states, Delaware required only slight gains in the early years after the law passed in 2002, followed by rapid progress as the 2014 deadline for universal proficiency for all students neared. Between 2003 and 2008, the state set total increases of 11 and 17 percentage points on its targets for the number of students deemed proficient in English and math, respectively. By contrast, between 2009 and 2014, those targets jump a total of 32 and 50 percentage points — an unprecedented leap, and one many experts consider impossible.

2008 was always framed as the magic year for No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Not only is it the midpoint on the ambitious road toward 2014, but it is also the date of a pivotal election and a year after Congress was due to reauthorize the law.

Some educators rolled the dice and hoped for relief from a new president or, at the very least, a reauthorization that would eliminate some of the law’s more onerous mandates. Others, like Woodruff, merely wanted to give their school districts time to adjust their curriculum and instruction to get in sync with the law.

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October 21st, 2008

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