Low Performing School Districts Begin to Face Sanctions

A May 10, 2008 article from The Associated Press reports that, as a result of the No Child Left Behind law, some low-performing school districts are beginning to face sanctions. After failing to meet the law's required benchmarks for the past four years, 411 school districts from 27 states will have some form of intervention. California, the state with the largest number of failing school districts, is implementing a sliding scale of punishment for school districts that are not meeting benchmarks. In the most extreme cases, administrators may be replaced and entire schools may be taken over by the state of California. Experts indicate that one challenge the struggling school districts will face is how to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers.

The article is available at the MSNBC Web site.