| Accountability
System |
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Each state sets academic standards for what
every child should know and learn. Student academic
achievement is measured for every child, every year. The
results of these annual tests are reported to the
public.
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| Achievement Gap |
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The difference between how well low-income and
minority children perform on standardized tests as compared
with their peers. For many years, low-income and minority
children have been falling behind their white peers in terms
of academic achievement.
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| Adequate Yearly Progress
(AYP) |
|
An individual state's measure of yearly
progress toward achieving state academic standards. "Adequate
Yearly Progress" is the minimum level of improvement that
states, school districts and schools must achieve each year.
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| Alternative
Certification |
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Most teachers are required to have both a
college degree in education and a state certification before
they can enter the classroom. No Child Left Behind
encourages states to offer other methods of qualification that
allow talented individuals to teach subjects they know.
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| Assessment |
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Another word for "test." Under No Child Left
Behind, tests are aligned with academic standards.
Beginning in the 2002-03 school year, schools must administer
tests in each of three grade spans: grades 3-5, grades 6-9,
and grades 10-12 in all schools. Beginning in the 2005-06
school year, tests must be administered every year in grades 3
through 8 in math and reading. Beginning in the 2007-08 school
year, science achievement must also be tested.
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| Charter School |
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Charter schools are independent public schools
designed and operated by educators, parents, community
leaders, educational entrepreneurs, and others. They are
sponsored by designated local or state educational
organizations, who monitor their quality and effectiveness but
allow them to operate outside of the traditional system of
public schools.
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| Comprehension |
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The ability to understand and gain meaning from
what has been read.
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| Corrective Action |
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When a school or school district does not make
yearly progress, the state will place it under a "Corrective
Action Plan." The plan will include resources to improve
teaching, administration, or curriculum. If a school continues
to be identified as in need of improvement, then the state has
increased authority to make any necessary, additional changes
to ensure improvement.
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| Disaggregated Data |
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"Disaggregate" means to separate a whole into
its parts. In education, this term means that test results are
sorted into groups of students who are economically
disadvantaged, from racial and ethnic minority groups, have
disabilities, or have limited English fluency. This practice
allows parents and teachers to see more than just the average
score for their child's school. Instead, parents and teachers
can see how each student group is performing.
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| Distinguished Schools |
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Awards granted to schools when they make major
gains in achievement.
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| Early Reading First |
|
A nationwide effort to provide funds to school
districts and other public or private organizations that serve
children from low-income families. The Department of Education
will make competitive 6-year grants to local education
agencies to support early language, literacy, and pre-reading
development of preschool-age children, particularly those from
low-income families.
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| Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA) |
|
ESEA, which was first enacted in 1965, is the
principal federal law affecting K-12 education. The No
Child Left Behind Act is the most recent reauthorization
of the ESEA.
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| Flexibility |
|
Refers to a new way of funding public
education. The No Child Left Behind Act gives states
and school districts unprecedented authority in the use of
federal education dollars in exchange for strong
accountability for results.
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| Fluency |
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The capacity to read text accurately and
quickly.
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| Local Education Agency
|
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(LEA) is a public board of education or other
public authority within a State which maintains administrative
control of public elementary or secondary schools in a city,
county, township, school district, or other political
subdivision of a state.
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| National Assessment of
Educational Progress |
|
An independent benchmark, NAEP is the only
nationally representative and continuing assessment of what
American students know and can do in various subject areas.
Since 1969, The National Center for Education Statistics has
conducted NAEP assessments in reading, mathematics, science,
writing, U.S. history, geography, civics, and the arts.
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| Phonemic Awareness |
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The ability to hear and identify individual
sounds—or phonemes—in spoken words.
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| Phonics |
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The relationship between the letters of written
language and the sounds of spoken language.
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| Public School Choice |
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Students in schools identified as in need of
improvement will have the option to transfer to better public
schools in their districts. The school districts will be
required to provide transportation to the students. Priority
will be given to low-income students.
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| Reading First |
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A bold new national initiative aimed at helping
every child in every state become a successful reader.
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| State Educational
Agency |
|
(SEA) is the agency primarily responsible for
the State supervision of public elementary and secondary
schools.
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| Supplemental Services |
|
Students from low-income families who are
attending schools that have been identified as in need of
improvement for two years will be eligible to receive outside
tutoring or academic assistance. Parents can choose the
appropriate services for their child from a list of approved
providers. The school district will purchase the services.
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| Teacher Quality |
|
To ensure that every classroom has a highly
qualified teacher, states and districts around the country are
using innovative programs to address immediate and long-term
needs, including alternative recruitment strategies, new
approaches to professional development, financial incentive
programs, partnerships with local universities, and much more.
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| Title I |
|
The first section of the ESEA, Title I refers
to programs aimed at America's most disadvantaged students.
Title I Part A provides assistance to improve the teaching and
learning of children in high-poverty schools to enable those
children to meet challenging State academic content and
performance standards.Title I reaches about 12.5 million
students enrolled in both public and private schools.
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| Transferability |
|
A new ESEA flexibility authority that allows
states and local educational agencies (LEAs) to transfer a
portion of the funds that they receive under certain Federal
programs to other programs that most effectively address their
unique needs to certain activities under Title I.
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| Unsafe School Choice
Option |
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Students who attend persistently dangerous
public schools or have been victims of violent crime at school
are allowed to transfer to a safer public school.
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| Vocabulary |
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The words students must know to read
effectively.
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