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2000 - NCTM releases Principles and Standards For The Teaching of Mathematics

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2000 - NCTM releases Principles and Standards For The Teaching of Mathematics

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NCTM released the first set of standards for the 21st century. It outlines what is needed for a rigorous, high quality math education so students are college and career ready after graduation.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (n.d.). 100 Timeline. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.nctm.org/100timeline/

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NCTM 100 Timeline - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

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NCTM 100 Timeline: Looking Back, Moving Forward

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Established as the "Nobel Prize" for mathematics. The goal is also to encourage math studies in students. They have awards for students and math teachers. "The Abel Prize supports a number of measures directed towards stimulating the interest in mathematics among children and young people. Among these are mathematics competitions for children and teenagers, and a mathematics teacher prize. "

The Abel Prize. (n.d.). About the Abel Prize. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://abelprize.no/page/about-abel-prize

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The Abel Prize is named after Niels Henrik Abel, Norway's greatest mathematician throughout the times. Abel left lasting marks on the mathematical world. His mathematics have served as a base for a number of major technological breakthroughs, there amongst the development of the internet. The Abel Prize was established by the Norwegian Parliament (The Storting) in 2002, on the occasion the 200-year anniversary of his birth. See also:

The Prize is 7,5 million Norwegian Kroner

The Prize is awarded by The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, on behalf of the Ministry of Education

The Abel Committee, consisting of five leading mathematicians from throughout the world, holds the task of appraising nominated candidates and recommend a worthy winner

Abel Prize ceremony in the Oslo University aula.

Inspiring mathematical interest in children and youth
The Abel Prize supports a number of measures directed towards stimulating the interest in mathematics among children and young people. Among these are mathematics competitions for children and teenagers, and a mathematics teacher prize.

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The Abel Prize is named after Niels Henrik Abel, Norway's greatest mathematician throughout the times. Abel left lasting marks on the mathematical world. His mathematics have served as a base for a number of major technological breakthroughs, there amongst the development of the internet.

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NCLB becomes law. The aim was to improve outcomes and raise scores. This law increasd the pressure of standardized tests by requriring all students to be "proficient" on state tests.

Klein, A. (2015, April 10). No Child Left Behind: An overview. Education Week. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/no-child-left-behind-an-overview/2015/04

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UPDATE: NCLB has been replaced. For information about the latest education law, read our explainer on ESSA, the Every Student Succeeds Act.
The No Child Left Behind law-the 2002 update of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act-effectively scaled up the federal role in holding schools accountable for student outcomes.

In December 2015, Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act to replace NCLB. ESSA moved in the opposite direction-it seeks to pare back the federal role in K-12 education. For more information on ESSA, read this explainer. See also our full coverage of ESSA and what it means for states and school districts.

NCLB was the product of a collaboration between civil rights and business groups, as well as both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill and the Bush administration, which sought to advance American competitiveness and close the achievement gap between poor and minority students and their more advantaged peers. Since 2002, it's had an outsized impact on teaching, learning, and school improvement-and become increasingly controversial with educators and the general public.

Here are a few frequently asked questions about the law, its history, and its policy implications.

What is ESEA?

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society program. Passed in 1965, it created a clear role for the federal government in K-12 policy, offering more than $1 billion a year in aid under its first statutory section, known as Title I, to districts to help cover the cost of educating disadvantaged students. The law has been reauthorized and changed more than half a dozen times since that initial legislation. And, for the most part, each new iteration has sought to expand the federal role in education.

What is NCLB?

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which passed Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2001 and was signed into law by President George W. Bush on Jan. 8, 2002, is the name for the most recent update to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The NCLB law-which grew out of concern that the American education system was no longer internationally competitive-significantly increased the federal role in holding schools responsible for the academic progress of all students. And it put a special focus on ensuring that states and schools boost the performance of certain groups of students, such as English-language learners, students in special education, and poor and minority children, whose achievement, on average, trails their peers. States did not have to comply with the new requirements, but if they didn't, they risked losing federal Title I money.

What do states and schools actually have to do under the law?

Under the NCLB law, states must test students in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school. And they must report the results, for both the student population as a whole and for particular "subgroups" of students, including English-learners and students in special education, racial minorities, and children from low-income families.

A school that misses AYP two years in a row has to allow students to transfer to a better-performing public school in the same district.

If a school misses AYP for three years in a row, it must offer free tutoring.

Schools that continue to miss achievement targets could face state intervention. States can choose to shut these schools down, turn them into charter schools, take them over, or use another, significant turnaround strategy.

States were required to bring all students to the "proficient level" on state tests by the 2013-14 school year, although each state got to decide, individually, just what "proficiency" should look like, and which tests to use. (In early 2015, the deadline had passed, but no states had gotten all 100 percent of its students over the proficiency bar.)

Under the law, schools are kept on track toward their goals through a mechanism known as "adequate yearly progress" or AYP. If a school misses its state's annual achievement targets for two years or more, either for all students or for a particular subgroup, it is identified as not "making AYP" and is subject to a cascade of increasingly serious sanctions:

The law also requires states to ensure their teachers are "highly qualified," which generally means that they have a bachelor's degree in the subject they are teaching and state certification. Beginning with the 2002-03 school year, all new teachers hired with federal Title I money had to be highly qualified. By the end of the 2005-06 school year, all school paraprofessionals hired with Title I money must have completed at least two years of college, obtained an associate's degree or higher, or passed an evaluation to demonstrate knowledge and teaching ability. States are also supposed to ensure that "highly qualified' teachers are evenly distributed among schools with high concentrations of poverty and wealthier schools.

What are some of the main criticisms of the current law?

Major portions of the NCLB law have proven problematic, particularly as the law has matured without any congressional update or reauthorization. For instance, it's unclear that the two main remedies for low-performing schools did much to improve student achievement. In many cases, students did not take advantage of the opportunity to transfer to another school, or get free tutoring. States and districts also had difficulty screening tutors for quality. Some districts, including Chicago, successfully petitioned to offer their own tutoring services. States also generally shied away from employing dramatic school turnaround strategies for perennially failing schools.

The NCLB law has also been criticized for growing the federal footprint in K-12 education, and for relying too heavily on standardized tests. And others say its emphasis on math and reading tests has narrowed the curriculum, forcing schools to spend less time on subjects that aren't explicitly tested, like social studies, foreign language, and the arts.

Education advocates also claim the law has been underfunded. The original legislation called for major increases in education spending to offset the cost of reaching NCLB's ambitious goals for student achievement, but federal spending never reached the lofty levels outlined in the law. By fiscal year 2007, for example, annual funding for the main NCLB program, Title I, was supposed to rise to $25 billion. It never got there. In fiscal year 2015, for example, Title I receives about $14.5 billion.

What's more, many states and districts have ignored parts of the law, including the requirement to ensure that highly qualified teachers are evenly distributed between poor and wealthier schools.

In order to improve implementation of the NCLB law, President George W. Bush's second secretary of education, Margaret Spellings, allowed states to apply to participate in pilot projects to try out changes to the law, including a growth-model pilot that let states consider student progress in rating schools instead of comparing different cohorts of students to one another.

What happened to the 2013-14 school-year deadline for all students to be "proficient"?

By 2010, it was clear that many schools were not going to meet NCLB's achievement targets. As of that year, 38 percent of schools were failing to make adequate yearly progress, up from 29 percent in 2006. In 2011, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, as part of his campaign to get Congress to rewrite the law, issued dire warnings that 82 percent of schools would be labeled "failing" that year. The numbers didn't turn out to be quite that high, but several states did see failure rates of more than 50 percent. In Congress, meanwhile, lawmakers saw the need for a rewrite, but were unable to bring a bill across the finish line. So that year, the Obama administration offered states a reprieve from many of the law's mandates through a series of waivers.

What do the Obama administration's NCLB waivers do?

What's more, schools that don't make AYP have to set aside a portion of their federal Title I dollars for tutoring and school choice. Schools at the point of having to offer school choice must hold back 10 percent of their Title I money.
The waivers, which are now in place in 42 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia, allow states to get out from under many of the mandates of the NCLB law in exchange for embracing certain education redesign priorities. For instance, waiver states no longer have to aim toward the (now past) 2013-14 deadline for getting all students to proficiency, or offer public school choice or tutoring for schools that miss achievement targets.

In exchange, states had to agree to set standards aimed at preparing students for higher education and the workforce. Waiver states could either choose the Common Core State Standards, or get their higher education institutions to certify that their standards are rigorous enough. They also must put in place assessments aligned to those standards. And they have to institute teacher-evaluation systems that take into account student progress on state standardized tests, as well as single out 15 percent of schools for turnaround efforts or more targeted interventions.

The Obama administration has made a number of adjustments to its initial waiver requirements, especially in the area of teacher evaluation, which has been the biggest struggle for states. If the NCLB law has not been reauthorized by the time President Barack Obama leaves office, it's not clear if a new administration will continue with the waivers or put its own accountability plan in place.

NCLB Terms to Know

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP): The yardstick at the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act. Under the NCLB law, states must test students in math and reading in grades 3-8 and at least once in high school. Schools must report on the performance of different groups of students, such as racial minorities, as well as the student population as a whole. Students are expected to reach annual achievement targets, known as adequate yearly progress, or AYP.

Title I: The section of the law providing federal funding to school districts to educate disadvantaged children. The Title I program was initially created under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and is now part of the No Child Left Behind Act, the most recent reauthorization of that law.
Highly Qualified Teacher: Under the NCLB law, every teacher in a core content area working in a public school had to be "highly qualified" in each subject taught, by the 2005-06 school year. Under the law, highly qualified generally means that a teacher is certified and demonstrated proficiency in his or her subject matter.

Choice: Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress (meet achievement targets) for two years in a row must allow their students to transfer to a better-performing school in the district.

Waiver: Comprehensive flexibility that the U.S. Department of Education has granted to more than 40 states and the District of Columbia from key requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) in exchange for embracing certain Obama administration education-redesign priorities on teachers, testing, standards, and school turnarounds.

Supplemental Education Services (SES): This is the No Child Left Behind Act's legal term for "free tutoring." Schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress (meet achievement targets) for three consecutive years, even if it's just for a particular subgroup of students, must offer free tutoring to all students. And schools must set aside 10 percent of their Title I funding to pay for the tutoring services. States with waivers don't have to abide by this requirement.

Subgroups: Different groups of traditionally overlooked students, including racial minorities, students in special education, English-language learners, and low-income children. Under the NCLB law, schools must break out results on annual tests by both the student population as a whole, and these "subgroup" students. Schools that don't meet achievement targets for subgroup students are subject to increasingly serious sanctions.

Supersubgroups: Under the Obama administration's NCLB waivers, some states choose to combine several "subgroups" for accountability purposes, resulting in what's known as "supersubgroups." Some civil rights organizations say lumping together different types of students, such as English-language learners and students in special education, makes it much tougher to see how individual groups are progressing relative to other groups of students and the student population as a whole.
NCLB Research and Resources

The text of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, including shortcuts to various parts of the bill dealing with accountability, teacher quality, and more.

All of the information from the U.S. Department of Education about waivers from the No Child Left Behind Act, including which states have them, and what their waiver plans look like.

"It's All Relative: How NCLB Waivers Did, and Not Transform School Accountability," by Anne Hyslop, who at the time was a policy analyst at the New America Foundation, but has since gone to work for the Education Department. An examination of which schools have been identified as underperforming through the Obama administration's NCLB waivers and how accountability looks different than it did under the original NCLB law. (View an Education Week summary.)

"The Impact of No Child Left Behind's Accountability Sanctions on School Performance: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from North Carolina," by researchers Thomas Ahn and Jacob Vigdor. A look at how schools fared under NCLB's original interventions, including public school choice and free tutoring. (View an Education Week summary.)

"States' Perspectives on Waivers: Relief from NCLB, Concern about Long-term Solutions," by Jennifer McMurrer and Nanami Yoshioka for the Center on Education Policy. An examination of state attitudes toward waivers. Highlights state's concerns about how the waivers might effect a potential reauthorization. (View an Education Week summary.)

"Mapping State Proficiency Standards Onto the NAEP Scales: Variation and Change in State Standards for Reading and Mathematics, 2005-2009." A look at how the standards and expectations set under the No Child Left Behind Act compare to those of the nation's report card, the National Assessment for Educational Progress. (View an Education Week summary.)

Focus School: A term that came about as part of the Obama administration's No Child Left Behind Act waivers, not the original 2002 law. It refers to schools with stubborn achievement gaps or weak performance among "subgroup" students, such as English-language learners or students in special education. States must identify 10 percent of their schools as "focus" schools.

Priority School: A term that came about as part of the Obama administration's No Child Left Behind Act waivers, not the original 2002 law. It refers to schools identified as one of the lowest performers in the state and subject to dramatic interventions, including potential leadership changes. States must identify at least 5 percent of their schools as "priority schools."

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A primer on the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Its successor, the Every Student Succeeds Act, replaced NCLB in Dec. 2015.

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Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2003 was released in 2004. It showed that 8th grade US math students were being in math compared to the top 8 countries but scored higher than the international average.

Boston College, TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center. (n.d.). TIMSS 2003. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2003.html

National Center for Education Statistics. (n.d.). Mathematics and science achievement of eighth-graders in 2003. In TIMSS 2003 results. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://nces.ed.gov/timss/results03_eighth03.asp

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TIMSS, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, is designed to help countries all over the world improve student learning in mathematics and science. It collects educational achievement data at the fourth and eighth grades to provide information about trends in performance over time together with extensive background information to address concerns about the quantity, quality, and content of instruction.

TIMSS provides important information for policy development, to foster public accountability, to allow areas of progress or decline in achievement to be identified and monitored, and to address concerns for equity.

Nearly 50 countries from all over the world participated in TIMSS 2003. A project of the IEA, based in Amsterdam, TIMSS is directed by the TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center at Boston College in collaboration with a worldwide network of organizations and representatives from the participating countries.

TIMSS 2003 data collection results were released December 14, 2004. The first round of TIMSS, which is conducted on a four-year cycle, was in 1995 and the second in 1999. The fourth round of TIMSS was conducted in 2007.

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timss 2003 special initiative in problem solving and inquiry

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Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2003

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The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2003, (TIMSS 2003), Lynch School of Education, Boston College.

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2005 - "We All Use Math Every Day" Initiative

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2005 - "We All Use Math Every Day" Initiative

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A combined effort between CBS, TI, and NCTM, "We All Use Math Every Day" provides free resources to math teachers. These lessons use Numb3rs to engage students in applications of mathematics.

PR Newswire. (2007, March 29). ‘We All Use Math Every Day™’ education initiative wins national iParenting Media Award for best educational web site. PR Newswire. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.chron.com/news/article/prn-we-all-use-math-every-day-tm-education-1590019.php

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(PRN) ‘We All Use Math Every Day(TM)’ Education Initiative Wins National iParenting Media Award for Best Educational Web Site

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Texas Instruments and CBS Paramount site features free classroom activities and resources…

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2006 - NCTM Reverses 1989 recommendations

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2006 - NCTM Reverses 1989 recommendations

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NCTM changes it's opinion and decideds students need stronger basic/foundational skills. This reverses years of promoting "fuzzy math" where the focus was on discovery and student lead learning. Learning math facts and algorithms were deemed important again.

Suffren, Q. (n.d.). Sub‑Standard Math Standards Get Help. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/sub-standard-math-standards-get-help

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After 17 years of promoting “fuzzy” math, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has finally found clarity.In its new report “Curriculum Focal Points,” NCTM reverses its previous recommendations that early math instruction focus on abstract conceptual skills (such as asking students to write about math instead of actually doing it) and now holds that students should master basic arithmetic and number facts.

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In 2010, The common Core State Standards for Math and ELA education are released. The goal for math was to create a curriculum that focuses on depth of knowledge and understanding. It was also the first time the US could have had a national curriculum. However, not every state adopted it.

Common Core State Standards Initiative. (n.d.). Common Core State Standards. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://corestandards.org/

ABC News. (2010, June 2). States unveil ‘Common Core State Standards’ for public schools. ABC News. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/national-school-standards-states-recommended/story?id=10809243

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States Unveil ‘Common Core State Standards’ for Public Schools

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States Unveil Common Core State Standards, uniform guidelines for what kids need to learn, that outline clear expectations for teachers and students.

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In 2011, Desmos is lauched by creator Eli Luberoff at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC. Desmos is an online, free graphing calculator. It also has Smart Phone Apps available. This was cheaper and more accessible for schools.

Koda, A. (2023, October 3). Desmos founder talks graphing calculators, charting his career. Yale Daily News. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/10/03/desmos-founder-talks-graphing-calculators-charting-his-career/

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Desmos founder talks graphing calculators, charting his career

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Eli Luberoff ’09 discusses his educational journey and inspiration for Desmos with current Yale College students.

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2014 - 5 states opt out of CCSS for Math

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2014 - 5 states opt out of CCSS for Math

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By 2014, five states have decided to not use the CCSS for their math standards. More states begin reviewing and replacing CCSS as shown in the next slides.

Baker, C. R. (2014, January 4). Opting out of the Common Core. Deseret News. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.deseret.com/2014/1/4/20532378/opting-out-of-the-common-core/

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Forty-five U.S. states and the District of Columbia voluntarily adopted Common Core State Standards for public education, but what about the states that opted out? Here's a look:

Alaska decided to stay with its own state standards, but that might be changing. Alaska has joined about half of U.S. states in a testing consortium that is designing assessments aligned to Common Core standards.

Minnesota adopted Common Core English standards in 2010, but kept its own math standards, which the state's policymakers considered superior.

Nebraska withdrew its initial support for Common Core standards after failing to win a $123 million grant through the federal Race to the Top program. The state did a side-by-side comparison of its own standards and Common Core standards and determined that most of the same material is covered.

Texas not only rejected Common Core standards, but the state's Legislature also passed a bill prohibiting the State Board of Education from adopting them or using assessments based on the Core. Statements from the Texas governor's office cite worries about federal intrusion and the cost of implementing the standards.

Virginia recently updated its state standards, and elected to keep them. A side-by-side comparison conducted by the state showed that Virginia's English standards align with Common Core on most points. A statement from the state education office found fault with the optional reading lists accompanying the Core's English standards.

Email: cbaker@deseretnews.com Twitter: @celiarbaker

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Alaska, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia did not adopt Common Core State Standards. Minnesota adopted the English standards, but not the math standards.

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NC adopted the CCSS in 2010 and implemented them using grant money. An advisory board is put together to review the CCSS for NC schools. The board will also make recomendations to the State Board of Education.

Public Schools First NC. (2014, September 23). The Facts on Common Core State Standards. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://publicschoolsfirstnc.org/resources/fact-sheets/the-facts-on-common-core-state-standards/

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The Facts on Common Core State Standards – Public Schools First NC

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Several states repeal CCSS and replace them with their own standards. Some states have standards that are very similar but use a different name. In 2014 only 43 states are using the CCSS as is. Some have replaced it with their own standards that are nearly identical. While others have completely replaced them.

Layton, L. (2014, September 10). Common Core 2.0: Common Core by another name. The Washington Post. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/common-core-20-common-core-by-another-name/2014/09/09/9d2ed458-3857-11e4-bdfb-de4104544a37_story.html

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Common Core 2.0: Common Core by another name

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43 states are standing by the Common Core, but one-third are calling it by another name.

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More state pull out of CCSS

"Legislation has been introduced in at least 12 states to prohibit implementation and states have dropped out of the two major Common Core assessment consortia"

Markell, J., & Perdue, S. (2014, February 10). Common Core isn’t a government conspiracy. Bloomberg Opinion. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-02-10/common-core-isn-t-a-government-conspiracy

picture: Map showing some states have left or revised CCSS Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Common Core implementation by state. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Core_implementation_by_state#/media/File:Status_of_Common_Core_Standards_vector.svg

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To continue, please click the box below to let us know you’re not a robot.

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President Obama signs the Every Student Succeeds Act. This replaced NCLB and while continuing the spririt of previous education laws. It offered more flexibility with how testing is accomplished and made allowances for differences in student demographics.

Korte, G. (2015, December 11). The Every Student Succeeds Act vs. No Child Left Behind: What’s changed? USA Today. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/12/10/every-student-succeeds-act-vs-no-child-left-behind-whats-changed/77088780/

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CLOSE

WASHINGTON - President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act into law Thursday, largely replacing the No Child Left Behind Act that was a hallmark of his predecessor's domestic agenda.

Lawmakers have touted the new law as a more flexible approach to student testing and school accountability, once again making states responsible for fixing under-performing schools.

Here's what's changed in the two laws:

The Problem
No Child Left Behind:
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, signed by President Lyndon Johnson, was a civil rights law that provided education funding to states and attempted to ensure that every student had access to an education. The law would expire every three to five years, requiring Congress to reauthorize it. In 2001, Democrats and Republicans in Congress became increasingly concerned by the growing achievement gaps that left poor and minority students in failing schools, and devised a system of testing and accountability to fix it. "The fundamental principle of this bill is that every child can learn, we expect every child to learn, and you must show us whether or not every child is learning," President George W. Bush said in the Jan. 8, 2002, signing ceremony.

Every Student Succeeds Act: The new law tries to preserve the spirit of No Child Left Behind, while fixing what were widely perceived as its one-size-fits-all approach. " The goals of No Child Left Behind, the predecessor of this law, were the right ones: High standards. Accountability. Closing the achievement gap," Obama said Thursday. "But in practice, it often fell short. It didn't always consider the specific needs of each community. It led to too much testing during classroom time. It often forced schools and school districts into cookie-cutter reforms that didn't always produce the kinds of results that we wanted to see."

Testing

No Child Left Behind: The law required states to test students on math and English every year in the third through eighth grades, and then again once in high school. It also required at least one science test in elementary, middle and high school.

Every Student Succeeds Act: States must still test students in the same grades but will now have flexibility in how and when they administer those tests. For example, a single annual assessment can be broken down into a series of smaller tests. There's also an emphasis on finding different kinds of tests that more accurately measure what students are learning.

Common Core

No Child Left Behind: The 2002 law did not address the Common Core standards specifically, since they didn't emerge until later that decade. And they emerged not from the federal government, but from a state-led effort to define what the states should be teaching and how it should be taught. But the Obama administration did play a role in expanding Common Core through waivers to No Child Left Behind requirements that encouraged states to adopt the standards.

Every Student Succeeds Act: The new law allows states to adopt Common Core but does not require it. In fact, it requires the Education Department to remain neutral: "The Secretary shall not attempt to influence, incentivize, or coerce State adoption of the Common Core State Standards developed under the Common Core State Standards Initiative or any other academic standards common to a significant number of States, or assessments tied to such standard."

Accountability

No Child Left Behind: One of the fundamental principles of the 2002 law - indeed, the principle that gave the law its name - was that schools had to improve the performance of all students. To do that, it required school districts to break out test scores and other measures for minority subgroups to make sure they were making progress each year. In practice, many states found that goal to be unrealistic and got around them by either creating "super subgroups" that lumped all disadvantaged students together, or changing to more subjective measures like parent/teacher involvement.

Every Student Succeeds Act: The new law leaves accountability goals almost entirely up to the states. States must submit their accountability plans to the Department of Education, which still has a limited oversight role. And there are "guardrails" defining broadly what the accountability goals need to include, and test scores and graduation rates must be given "much greater weight" than the more subjective measures.

Remedies

No Child Left Behind: States that wanted their fair share of federal funding were required to fix schools that failed to improve test scores adequately. Those "interventions" started out with softer measures, but after five years the school had a limited number of dire choices: fire the principal and most of the staff, convert to a charter school, lengthen the school day or year, or close down the school entirely.

Every Student Succeeds Act: The new law is much more specific about which schools need intervention but much less specific on what those interventions should be. Schools at the bottom 5% of assessment scores (as defined by the state), high schools that graduate less than 67% of students, or schools where subgroups are consistently underperforming would be considered failing and could be subject to state takeover - although the law doesn't say what the state needs to do.

Spending

No Child Left Behind: The education law sets policy, and does not spend money directly - that's done through annual spending bills. The original law authorized up to $32 billion in spending in 2002 dollars, but Congress never spent anywhere close to that, appropriating just $23 billion in 2015.

Every Student Succeeds Act: The law authorizes the spending of $24.9 billion in 2016, again subject to the spending bill now being finalized by Congress. According to the Congressional Budget Office, that cost would grow to $25.8 billion in 2020.

Bipartisanship

No Child Left Behind: The architects of the 2002 law were on opposite sides of the Capitol and on opposite ends of the political spectrum: Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio (later the House speaker), and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. The vote on final passage was 381-41 in the House and 87-10 in the Senate. Bush signed the bill into law at a high school in Boehner's congressional district.

Every Student Succeeds Act: The lead sponsors in the Senate were Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash, and in the House were Reps. John Kline, R-Minn., and Bobby Scott, D-Va. It passed the House 359-64 and the Senate 85-12. Obama signed it into law Thursday at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Contributing: Mary Troyan
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The Every Student Succeeds Act vs. No Child Left Behind: What's changed?

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CLOSE WASHINGTON - President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act into law Thursday, largely replacing the No Child Left Behind Act that was a hallmark of his predecessor's domestic agenda. Lawmakers have touted the new law as a more flexible approach to student testing and school accountability, once again making states responsible for fixing under-performing schools.

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NC replaces CCSS with their own standards. These new standards are similar to CCSS. These new standards are confusing to teachers. The standards were rated as weak and need improvement by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

The News & Observer. (n.d.). NC ditched Common Core. Now its confusing math standards fall flat. The News & Observer. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article218015655.html

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Amber M. Northern and Michael J. Petrilli Updated September 10, 2018 12:36 PM

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NC ditched Common Core. Now its confusing math standards fall short.

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In 2017, North Carolina adopted new math and reading standards, after deciding to “un-adopt” the Common Core standards. In deciding to chart its own course, the state was well within its rights. But it still has a responsibility to make sure that the standards are clear and usable for teachers. And on that count, it is falling short.

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WCPSS students and families protest the use of Math Vision Project curriculum in high schools. One high school staged a walk out.

MVP focuses on collaboration and critical thinking. It also does not want the teachers to provide direct instruction.

Heffernan, S. (2019, April 10). Wake students plan walkout to protest new math curriculum. WRAL News. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.wral.com/story/wake-students-plan-walkout-to-protest-new-math-curriculum/18316470/

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Wake students plan walkout to protest new math curriculum

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Students at Green Hope High School in Cary plan to walk out of school Wednesday morning to protest a math program they say is failing Wake County students.

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2025 - NYC schools adopt Illustrative Mathematics 

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2025 - NYC schools adopt Illustrative Mathematics 

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To combat low test scores, NYC schools will adopt Illustrative Mathematics. Teachers push back saying it's too fast and there aren't enough resources for stuggling students. As is common with the math wars, this curriculum "put[s] too much focus on developing deep understandings of math concepts, and not enough on practicing math skills"

Schwartz, S. (2025, February 7). New York City’s new curriculum gets caught in the ‘math wars’. Education Week. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/new-york-citys-new-curriculum-gets-caught-in-the-math-wars/2025/02

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New York City’s New Curriculum Gets Caught in the ‘Math Wars’

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An initiative aimed at raising student achievement doesn’t give students enough practice with foundational skills, some say.

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Maryland math curriculum changes include moving to integrated math. It also requires 60 minutes of math instruction in all grades K-12. The goal is to prepare students for the real world.

Lynn, K. (2025, March 25). Maryland education leaders set to approve new math policy that would affect all grades. WJLA. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.wral.com/story/wake-students-plan-walkout-to-protest-new-math-curriculum/18316470/

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Maryland education leaders set to approve new math policy that would affect all grades

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The Maryland State Board of Education meets Tuesday in Annapolis at 9 a.m. to consider adopting the Prek-12 Comprehensive Mathematics Policy.

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2025 - Math scores start to show recovery

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2025 - Math scores start to show recovery

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Five years after schools closed due to the pandemic, we are starting to see some recovery in Math scores. However learning gaps are growing between lower performing students and their higher performing peers. Federal funding is ending for some programs. This could slow or reverse progress.

Kuhfeld, M., & Lewis, K. (2025, March 18). 5 years after COVID‑19 hit: Test data converge on math gains, stalled reading recovery. Brookings Institution. Retrieved July 9, 2025, from https://www.brookings.edu/articles/5-years-after-covid-19-hit-test-data-converge-on-math-gains-stalled-reading-recovery/

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5 years after COVID-19 hit: Test data converge on math gains, stalled reading recovery | Brookings

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Megan Kuhfeld and Karyn Lewis analyze post-COVID-19 learning loss, showing uneven recovery across subjects and grades.