Abstract

In January 2002, President Bush signed one of the most important educational acts, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), in the history of the United States. The NCLB has two major goals. One goal is to close the achievement gap between White and minority students, which include English language learners, students with learning disabilities, and students from low-income families. Another goal is to have all elementary and secondary students in the United States be proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014. This study will examine whether NCLB has helped in closing the achievement gap among the various groups in the United States. This research study found that NCLB has not been able to significantly help improving student achievement of the minority groups. The study will also discuss the reasons that NCLB has failed and will not be able to reach its goal of 100% proficiency in math and reading by 2014.