Dear Neighbors,

As those of you with children know, a new school year will begin soon. The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has had a tremendous effect upon our schools, helping states to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of our schools, track student proficiency in greater detail than ever before, and provide useful information to parents and communities.

There are those in the education community who oppose NCLB. However, while NCLB may not be perfect, I believe it's done more good than harm. If you'd like to form your own opinion, or find out how you can make the best use of this federal law, the following information may be helpful to you.

Three publications are now available to help both parents and community members without children better understand how NCLB affects our schools and how to use it to improve our children's education.

1. "The ABCs of 'AYP' – Raising Achievement for All Students" by The Education Trust summarizes the accountability requirements of Title I of the NCLB Act and attempts to clear up some of the most common misperceptions. You can read this short document at http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/
   37B8652D-84F4-4FA1-AA8D-319EAD5A6D89/0/
   ABCAYP.PDF.
2. "Questions to Ask About NCLB Reports" is a guide to help us ask good questions about the recently released data on schools' Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) reports and other data that schools, districts, and state level report to the public. With this data, educators, parents, community members, and policymakers can better identify successes and areas that need improvement, and make data-driven decisions on how to make sure every child gets the services they need to succeed. You can find this one-page document at http://www2.edtrust.org/NR/rdonlyres/
   8ABC094A-8403-471B-A9F4-9C9D28A751AF/0/
   QuestionstoAsk.pdf.
3. The "Back to School Checklist – Questions and Tips for Parents, Schools, and the Community" by the U.S. Dept. of Education includes the following topics: Academic Curriculum and Achievement, Helping Parents and Students, Teacher Training and Quality, and Student Discipline. You can access the checklist at http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/
   2004/08/08052004-checklist.pdf.

Much more information about the No Child Left Behind Act is available at www.ed.gov/nclb/, including:

• An Overview of the Act
• Stronger Accountability - Improving student proficiency, closing achievement gaps, state standards, etc.
• More Local Freedom - Local control and flexibility, safer schools, faith-based and community efforts
• Proven Methods - Information about programs and methods that are proven to raise student proficiency
• Choices for Parents - Supplemental services, school choice and charter schools
• Budget - Detailed information on federal education funding over several years by both state and program at http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/tables.html
• Teacher's Toolkit – Information on “highly qualified teacher” requirements; questions teachers frequently ask; information about loan forgiveness, liability protection and tax relief; and other resources
• Parents Guide – Questions & Answers about accountability, testing, reading, teacher quality, safe schools, choice, and charter schools; links to different parts, or Titles, of the law; and descriptions of the different parts of Title I
• Teacher to Teacher - Ideas to improve student learning
• Policy Guidance – Department guidance and regulations on parent involvement, highly qualified teachers, supplemental services, and other NCLB issues

Ultimately, the education of each Alaskan child will have a profound effect on every aspect of our state. I hope, whether you have school age children or not, that you will take some time to review these links. The NCLB Act is complex and easy to misunderstand, yet it has had and will continue to have a deep effect on our teachers, students, schools, school districts, and state education policies.

If you have any questions about this information, please contact me. I'll be happy to assist you.

# # #