Of course, we as administrators and educators in the educational district of X pride ourselves on fostering creativity and tailoring our educational initiatives to individual students' needs. But given the recent passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. (NCLBA) we may need to reevaluate critical facets of our program and philosophy. The No Child Left Behind Act. (NCLBA) is one of the most controversial recent educational initiatives of recent memory. For many educators, NCLBA is both confusing in its vagueness and overly directive in its prescriptions. But it cannot be ignored and it is crucial that all relevant personnel become familiar with its implications.
             The law requires states to test students and report on their progress, but does not specify what those standards should be. States set the standards for schools. Failing schools must allow students to enroll in public schools whose students show stronger results. This aspect of the act is an attempt to introduce capitalist competition to the educational system between schools. According to the dictates of the act, all school districts such as ours, that is, Title I-eligible schools, must meet adequate yearly progress standards. If they do not for two consecutive years they must allow students to enroll in a better public school in the district (Kafer 2004). One could say this is a way of introducing school choice into the public school system, although it does not give vouchers to parents to allow them to send their students to private schools.
             The theory behind the legislation is that if enough students leave a failing school, not only will the students improve their personal individual performance by being allowed to go to a better school, but failing schools will be forced to change their approaches to education. The failing schools will also not receive as much funding because of their lower numbers of students. But states and schools do no
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