Resident Scholar Frederick M. Hess

The No Child Left Behind Act is the most ambitious piece of education legislation ever enacted by Congress. Designed to promote accountability and prod states to address educational inequities, NCLB includes significant provisions regarding assessment, sanctions for low-performing schools and districts, teacher quality and standards for educational research.

On Jan. 8, 2002, surrounded by members of both the Democratic and Republican congressional leadership, President George W. Bush signed No Child Left Behind (NCLB) into law. NCLB is the nation's most significant federal legislation on K-12 schooling since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, and the most ambitious federal intervention in a domain long regarded as the preserve of state and local government.

Enacted just months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress approved NCLB by large, bipartisan majorities. The U.S. Senate supported the new law 87-10, and the House of Representatives endorsed it 381-41. Emerging from an exhaustive year of negotiations, NCLB refashioned federal education policy in the areas of testing, accountability and teacher quality. More than anything else, NCLB was a demand by Washington, D.C. policymakers that state and local officials do something about low-performing schools.

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Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at AEI.