2014 looms as deadline for NCLB proficiency goals

It looms in the distance, a goal meant to challenge the nation’s schools to reach ever higher. It is 2014, the year the nation’s schoolchildren must all reach proficiency in reading, writing and mathematics under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. But many school officials in Connecticut and around the region are wondering how many more strides they can make in six years toward what some see as an unattainable goal.

Their options to make improvements, they predict, will narrow as 2014 draws closer, particularly since the target of 100% proficiency must also be reached by students who have proven particularly challenging—students from impoverished homes, students with learning disabilities and new immigrants.

Last week, the Bush administration acknowledged that too many schools were failing under the law’s provisions and that some changes would need to be made in some states to help distinguish those schools with major problems from those schools with just a few. Read more in The New York Times online.