Subgroup Reporting and School Segregation

An Unhappy Pairing in the No Child Left Behind Equation

By Amy Ellen Schwartz, Leanna Stiefel, & Colin Chellman

One of the more prominent features of the federal No Child Left Behind Act is the requirement that schools and districts track the performance of subgroups of students. While the law identifies several subgroups, including low-income and English-language learners, the low performance of black and Hispanic students should be of particular concern. Ironically, because of the way the law is written, the schools and districts that could end up being most heavily penalized are those that are...