Chapter 2: No Principal Left Behind?: The Core Beliefs of Nine Urban Elementary Principals in a Midwest School District Implementing No Child Left Behind

There is enormous benefit to understanding the daily impact of national educational reform efforts on school leadership since principals around the country are on the front line of implementation for all school improvement initiatives. But national school reforms are like buses, if you wait around long enough a new one is sure to come along shortly. For example, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which is a re-ratification of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, was passed by Congress in late 2001 and signed into law by President George W. Bush in January of 2002. The reauthorization represented a major change in the way schools were held accountable. Today, NCLB is being eclipsed by the latest whim of educational reform schemes, including: Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, teacher quality, teacher tenure, and the like. NCLB, once thought to be a permanent fixture in our national educational landscape, is now undergoing a slow demise by way of new ESEA flexibility as many U.S. states are asking for reform pardons (USDOE, 2014).