Days of Reckoning

Publication Date: July 2006

Publisher: Citizens Commission on Civil Rights

Author(s): Phyllis McClure; Dianne Piche; William L. Taylor

Research Area: Education

Keywords: teacher quality; education commission; minority education

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

In Days of Reckoning, the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights found that many states are dragging their feet in carrying out provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act that requires all students to have equal access to highly qualified teachers, and the federal government hasn't been doing enough to enforce the law.

The report was released on July 7, 2006, the day all states were required to submit revised plans stating what they would do during the 2006-07 school year to meet the teacher quality requirements of No Child Left Behind. No state had met all of the teacher quality provisions in the law.

The Commission reviewed the reports of 40 site visits that the Department of Education conducted to determine how well individual states were complying with the law. The report says that as poor and minority students have been taught by teachers who are inexperienced, lack full certification, or are teaching out of their areas of expertise, the states have shown "patterns of resistance, delay, and misreporting" in remedying the problem. To strengthen compliance, the report recommends actions to improve transparency, data quality, enforcement and other initiatives.