State and Local Implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act

A key aim of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) is to provide new educational options to parents whose children are attending Title I schools identified for improvement, by allowing them to enroll their children in other schools or in supplemental education services (SES), such as tutoring. (Title I schools are those that receive federal funding because they have a high percentage of students from low-income families.) This report presents findings on the implementation of NCLB's parental choice options from 2004–2005 to 2006–2007; the findings update and reinforce those from an interim report based on data collected in 2002–2003. In 2006–2007, only 1 percent of the 6.9 million students who were eligible for school choice took advantage of the option, and about 17 percent of the 3.3 million eligible students took advantage of supplemental services. Reasons for the lack of participation in the NCLB educational option include the unavailability of alternate schools or SES providers in many districts and lack of communication between schools and parents about the options — large percentages of parents reported either being unaware of their options or not being informed of them before the start of the school year.

Reprinted with permission from “State and Local Implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act: Volume VII — Title I School Choice and Supplemental Education Services: Final Report” by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Development, Policy and Program Studies Service, Washington D.C., 2009.