Chicago Resisting Federal Directive on NCLB Tutoring

Federal authorities have told the low-performing Chicago school district that it must stop providing tutoring under the No Child Left Behind Act. But the district has refused, producing a standoff between U.S. education officials and the country’s third-largest school system.

Arne Duncan, the chief executive officer of the Chicago schools, said that his district would continue to serve as a provider of tutoring services. Stopping would disrupt tutoring for tens of thousands of children, he said, an outcome he views as absurd and contrary to the intent of the No Child Left Behind Act.

“The authors of the law had the best of intentions for kids,” he said in a December interview. “But you can’t blindly follow rules that hurt kids, that...