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No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is the single most influential piece of federal education legislation in American history, and Hess and Petrilli provide a concise yet comprehensive look at this important and controversial act. Signed into law in 2002, NCLB seeks to ensure that all American students are proficient in math, reading, and science by 2014. Trumping two centuries of state primacy in K-12 education, it set standards for measuring student performance, ensuring the quality of teachers, and providing options for students in ineffective schools. The authors trace the heritage of these new policies, explain how they work, and examine the challenges of their implementation.

Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute as well as Executive Editor of Education Next. His many books include Common Sense School Reform (2004), Spinning Wheels (1999/2004), Revolution at the Margins (2002), and A Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom? (2004).

Michael J. Petrilli is Vice President for National Programs and Policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a Washington-based school reform organization. He served as a Bush administration appointee in the U.S. Department of Education (2001-2005), where he helped coordinate No Child Left Behind's (NCLB) public school choice and supplemental services provisions and oversaw discretionary grant programs for charter schools, alternative teacher certification, and high school reform.