Forum - August 2011

in 2004 launched its Targeting Achievement through Governance (TAG) program, which provides board development services at no cost to school districts with schools that have not achieved AYP under NCLB, the goal being to help board members understand the link between policy and progress in pursuit of higher student achievement and increased student learning.

No School Board Left Behind

Although it wasn’t created until 38 years later, IASB’s TAG
program was born out of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA), which was passed in 1965 as part of
President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” The larg-
est and most far-reaching education act ever passed by Con-
gress, its goal was providing students fair and equal access
to education by providing federal funding for schools and
school districts that serve low-income families. In the last
46 years, Congress has reauthorized ESEA several times —
most recently in 2001 under President George W. Bush, who
dubbed his version “No Child Left Behind.”
In order to qualify for federal funding under NCLB, states
must develop standardized tests in reading and math, then
administer them annually in grades three through eight, and
at least once in high school. Schools and school districts
alike must meet a minimum, state-established performance
threshold — AYP — to continue receiving federal money. In
Illinois, AYP started at 40 percent in 2003, meaning that 40
percent of students in both the general population and mul-
tiple subgroups — including low-income students, students
with disabilities and limited-English-proficiency students
— had to meet or exceed standards, as established by the
Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) at the elementary
level and the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE) at the
high school level. State AYP has grown incrementally each
year, reaching 85 percent in 2011. By 2014, AYP will be
100 percent nationwide.