No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
Title I: Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged
The purpose of this title is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments. This purpose can be accomplished by -
- ensuring that high-quality academic assessments, accountability
systems, teacher preparation and training, curriculum, and instructional
materials are aligned with challenging State academic standards
so that students, teachers, parents, and administrators can
measure progress against common expectations for student academic
achievement;
- meeting the educational needs of low-achieving children in
our Nation's highest-poverty schools, limited English proficient
children, migratory children, children with disabilities, Indian
children, neglected or delinquent children, and young children
in need of reading assistance;
- closing the achievement gap between high- and low-performing
children, especially the achievement gaps between minority and
non minority students, and between disadvantaged children and
their more advantaged peers;
- holding schools, local educational agencies, and States accountable
for improving the academic achievement of all students, and
identifying and turning around low-performing schools that have
failed to provide a high-quality education to their students,
while providing alternatives to students in such schools to
enable the students to receive a high-quality education;
- distributing and targeting resources sufficiently to make
a difference to local educational agencies and schools where
needs are greatest;
- improving and strengthening accountability, teaching, and
learning by using State assessment systems designed to ensure
that students are meeting challenging State academic achievement
and content standards and increasing achievement overall, but
especially for the disadvantaged;
- providing greater decision making authority and flexibility
to schools and teachers in exchange for greater responsibility
for student performance;
- providing children an enriched and accelerated educational
program, including the use of schoolwide programs or additional
services that increase the amount and quality of instructional
time;
- promoting schoolwide reform and ensuring the access of children
to effective, scientifically based instructional strategies
and challenging academic content;
- significantly elevating the quality of instruction by providing
staff in participating schools with substantial opportunities
for professional development;
- coordinating services under all parts of this title with each
other, with other educational services, and, to the extent feasible,
with other agencies providing services to youth, children, and
families; and
- affording parents substantial and meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their children.
[Section 1001.Statement of Purpose]
