No Child Left Behind and the Transformation of Federal
Education Policy, 1965–2005. By Patrick J. McGuinn.
Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006. 320p. $40.00 cloth,
$19.95 paper.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is an attempt by the federal government
to regulate educational policy in the 50 states. By imposing on
states a set of standards, benchmarks of yearly progress, and
imposing sanctions on failing schools, the U.S. Department of
Education has made a significant step from being more than a federal
bully pulpit and a perch for fading politicians to a genuine
ministry of education. This is ironic because the U.S. Constitution
reserves to the states educational policy, except when it comes to
enforcing civil rights. The strong bipartisan support for NCLB is a
political, policy, and constitutional sea change in American
history. How—and more importantly, why—did this happen?