The No Child Left Behind Act: Characteristics of Public Elementary Schools and Adequate Yearly Progress

This study evaluated how public elementary schools in the second largest school district in Nevada, with the largest populations of students with special needs, fare under the No Child Left Behind Act. The study also examined how such students in schools on a traditional calendar compared to students on a year-round calendar. The transiency rates at those schools were also considered. Fifty-three K-6 schools were included in the study. Three null hypotheses of significant differences in mean percentages were tested with Analysis of Variance and/or t-tests, using data for three combined academic years.The results showed that there was a significant difference in mean percentages of LEP and FRL groups at schools that made AYP and those that did not make AYP. There was no significant difference between the mean percentages of the IEP group. Similar results were observed in schools on a year-round calendar. The hypothesis could not be tested in schools on a traditional calendar, since the assumptions for inferential testing could not be met, due to the small sample size of one of the groups. Therefore, only descriptive statistics were presented for schools on a traditional calendar. The t-test on transiency rates showed a significant difference in mean percentages of schools that made AYP and those that did not make The study includes a discussion of the results, and recommendations of areas for further research