Last Updated on Wednesday, February 02, 2011 at 5:03 AM
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was signed into law in January 2002. Initial discussion of the act suggested that its provisions were in many respects comparable to those upon which Kentucky's system of assessment and accountability was based. Kentucky already had goals for proficient student performance, baselines, and a support system for schools in assistance. It was thought that states could use existing systems to meet the requirements of NCLB. As regulations have developed however and provisions of revised statute better understood, less flexibility is available than earlier thought. States now find that statutory provisions are strictly interpreted and they must make modifications to their assessments and use the assessment data to make federal accountability decisions along with their state decisions.
On June 10, 2003, Kentucky was granted conditional approval by the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) for Kentucky's state plan for implementation of NCLB. Conditional approval required the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) to submit several proposals to address NCLB requirements. Kentucky law authorizes the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) to implement final assessment and accountability policy decisions after receiving advice from several statutorily created groups as well as other stakeholders. As a result, current proposals by KDE are subject to revision before becoming final through this advisory process and final approval by KBE.
In the last several years, Kentucky has adopted and implemented goals that are shared with those of NCLB, including: high expectations for all students; rigorous student performance standards tied to annual assessments in grades 3-8; multiple assessments tied to the core content measuring what students know and can do, such as applying higher order thinking skills in reading and mathematics as well as in other subject content areas; school accountability; student and school performance information to parents in the form of school report cards; and, a goal of proficiency in 12 years by the year 2014. Besides having already implemented CATS, other provisions of NCLB that states are required to implement which Kentucky has already done, include: rewards and consequences, required school improvement plans, scholastic audits, highly skilled educators assigned to schools in assistance; student data disaggregated by subpopulation; a unified data collection and reporting system. These are some of the many examples of how Kentucky's system of public education has been implementing for the last thirteen years many of the requirements of NCLB.
2004 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Briefing Packet
2004 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Reports
2004 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Interpretive Guide