No Child Left Behind: A History, With a Focus on the Effects in the Chippewa Valley of Wisconsin

Abstract

This paper is an overview of the history of the No Child Left Behind legislation. Special attention is given to the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), A Nation at Risk, and the current effects of No Child Left Behind. The 1965 ESEA legislation was designed to provide educational assistance to those in need through programs such as Title 1. In 1983, A Nation at Risk was published and started a new wave of federal government involvement in public education. The end result was the reauthorization of ESEA in the form of No Child Left Behind The findings of this paper are largely a result of NEA publications, U.S. government publications and data, other secondary historical works, and interviews conducted by the author.