New No Child Left Behind rules announced

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — In a last-ditch effort to strengthen the No Child Left Behind law, the Bush administration announced Tuesday that it will require schools to make sure low-income and minority students graduate from high school at the same rate as their white and more affluent counterparts. Schools that fail to meet those goals would face sanctions, according to a wide-ranging plan unveiled by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.

Currently, the law requires that schools meet a graduation target for the entire senior class. The new proposal would require that smaller groups of students, broken down by race, income and special-education status, each meet the graduation goals. If any one of the groups fell short, the entire school would be considered failing.