NCLB has failed to close the so-called "achievement gap"

NAEP Tests Show

The report also found little progress since 2004 in closing the achievement gaps that separate black and Hispanic students from their white peers. Washington Post

Some experts said the results proved that the No Child law had failed to make serious headway in lifting academic achievement. “We’re lifting the basic skills of young kids,” said Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California, Berkeley, “but this policy is not lifting 21st-century skills for the new economy.” (Sam Dillon, NYT)

U.S. high-school students haven't achieved any significant gains in reading or math for nearly four decades, according to a new federal report that underscores the challenges the Obama administration faces as it pressures schools to raise standards to produce a more competitive work force...The results suggest gains made by younger students are "washing out" as they get older, said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, which advocates for increasing high-school-graduation rates. (WSJ)

Scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, out Tuesday, find that the stubborn, decades-long achievement gap between white and minority students shrank between the 1970s and the first part of this decade, but has barely budged since 2002, when the federal government compelled public schools to address it through No Child Left Behind (NCLB). (USA TODAY)

More on this at Fred's Blog, FairTest