No Child Left Behind, School Choice, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school District: A Case
Study
Stephanie Southworth
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
John Barnshaw
University of Delaware
Introduction
The enactment of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (2002) was touted as a major legislative
achievement in President George W. Bush’s first term. NCLB (2002) emphasizes a neoclassical economic
based model that assumes that markets and competition will produce a competitive education system.
Through competition and choice, it is reasoned that schools and districts will cease to “leave children
behind” by holding students, teachers and parents accountable for student achievement. Thus, NCLB
(2002) seeks to hold stakeholders accountable by requiring schools and districts to measure academic
growth for all students through end of grade (EOG) tests, which will, it is reasoned, increase efficiency
and competitiveness among students and schools.
Under NCLB (2002), students are categorized by race and socioeconomic status and if one
subgroup does not pass the end of grade tests, the entire school, or in some cases, district is determined to
be in need of improvement. If a school is labeled as under performing for two consecutive years,
students are given a choice to opt out of their school and attend another. The provision in NCLB (2002)
that allows students to opt out of low performing schools is part of an overarching ideology that choice in
markets will produce excellence. However, NCLB (2002) does not assume that all schools or districts
are equal, and recognizes that some schools and districts will have greater concentrated poverty and more
students with traditionally lower achievement scores. NCLB (2002) attempts to remedy this through
increased funding for high poverty traditionally underperforming schools and districts under Title I of the
act.
Given these factors and the neoclassical assumptions set forth in NCLB (2002), this proposal
offers a case study of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School (CMS) District in Charlotte, North Carolina to
test both the efficacy and assumptions of NCLB (2002). Following a brief case history of the Charlotte
Mecklenburg School district, this paper reviews the relevant literature on neoclassical theory and