Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/GayleChristensen

This report examines private school participants in federal education programs, specifically under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The results showed that less than half of private schools have participants in federal education programs. One exception is Catholic schools, where eighty percent had participants in one of the ESEA programs. While the majority of private schools without participants in federal programs indicated they made a conscious decision not to participate, forty percent indicated not having any knowledge of federal programs under ESEA.

The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) relied on two notable policy instruments to improve education: accountability and flexibility. Accountability is perhaps the most recognized and discussed feature of the legislation. As a strategy for improving education, it calls for establishing challenging standards of performance, developing rigorous and scientifically based systems for monitoring progress toward attaining these standards, and introducing meaningful consequences for schools that consistently fail to make satisfactory progress. NCLB not only maintains but also strengthens federal commitments to this approach as an important driver of reform.

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