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House Research home > Minnesota Government in Brief > Government Functions and Services: Education

No Child Left Behind

The federal No Child Left Behind Act's goal is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach proficiency on state reading and math standards and assessments. States must align academic content with student performance standards and annually assess students’ progress in achieving those standards. Schools (including charter schools), school districts, and states must use a statewide educational accountability system to determine whether all students in a school are making adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward having 100 percent of students perform proficiently in English and math by the 2013-2014 school year.

NCLB requires schools to determine whether all students and specific subgroups of students (limited English proficiency students, students with disabilities, students eligible for free and reduced price meals, and white, black, Asian Pacific Islander, American Indian, and Hispanic students) are making AYP. The fewer student subgroups identified and counted within a school, the fewer chances for the school to fail to make AYP. Schools fail to make AYP if they fail to meet or sustain specific levels of performance for all students and for each identified student subgroup. Schools also fail to make AYP if fewer than 95 percent of students in each identified subgroup are tested.

FY 2010 Distribution of Subgroups AYP Status Review

* Districts with too few students in a subgroup are not required to track AYP for that subgroup, nor is tracking required for a small number of exempt special education students.

Related link:

• House Research publications Adequate Yearly Progress Under the No Child Left Behind Act and States’ Analysis of Student Performance Under No Child Left Behind Act
• Legislative Reference Library Links to the World: Education

Originally published January 2011.