It is often claimed that 100% of students must be proficient under NCLB. frequently this claim is followed quickly by the assertion of what an impossible task this is.
Of course this is and has been a giant lie from the get go as this Ed Week article makes clear.
The tests may also allow some schools to make adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act when they had not before. Up to 2 percent of students’ proficient and advanced scores on these particular tests, which the department calls “alternate assessments based on modified achievement standards,” may be counted when measuring AYP. Two percent of all students is equivalent to about 20 percent of students with disabilities.
The Education Department also allows up to 1 percent of all students in a state—equivalent to 10 percent of students with disabilities—to take a different type of alternate assessment and be counted as proficient for purposes of AYP. Those tests, which are the ones used with students with significant cognitive impairments, are less complex and comprehensive.
Get that? 2% can take a modified assessment (blind kids can take the test in braille, etc.) and 1% can take alternate assessment. Not to mention that 5% of students can be absent on test day. And, there's even talk of raising the 1% alternate assessment rate to 3%.
So, the reality is that under NCLB 100% can be as low as 92% (and perhaps soon 90%).
Keep this in mind when you hear educrats mention how onerous NCLB is.