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Understanding NCLB's Jargon
No Child Left Behind brings new standards and new jargon to the schools. Here are some commonly used terms.
NCLB: Shorthand for No Child Left Behind. Say it fast and it sounds like "nickel-be" ; to pronounce it that way is to reveal oneself as an education wonk.
AYP: The federal abbreviation for Adequate Yearly Progress. AYP represents the minimum percentage of students who must be at grade level for the school to meet the federal standards for that year.
TITLE I: Title I programs are designed to help children who are behind academically. Funding is based on the percentage of low-income children in a school and represents the largest single source of federal money in the schools.
ABCs: The name of North Carolina's school accountability program. Launched in the mid 1990s, it uses year-end tests to measure the progress of children and schools; it will continue to operate alongside the new federal program.
END-OF-GRADE TESTS: The tests that most parents, teachers and students have become familiar with in grades three through eight that measure math and reading skills . The same tests, often called EOGs, are used for NCLB, but the results are handled in far different ways.
END-OF-COURSE TESTS: The tests used to measure high school performance on the ABCs. Again, the same EOC results are used for both state and federal programs, but in far different ways.
Now read the following if you want to test yourself: "Our school failed to make AYP under nickel-be because two subgroups didn't meet their performance goals, especially the Title I kids, even though our EOG scores fared well on the ABCs."
Got it? Welcome to the world of NCLB.
— Tim Simmons
Understanding NCLB's jargon
Charlotte News & Observer
http://newsobserver.com/news/triangle/story/2690331p-2494267c.html
July 13, 2003
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