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The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is the most influential piece of federal education legislation in American history. By setting standards for measuring student performance, ensuring the quality of teachers, and providing options for students in ineffective schools, NCLB seeks to ensure that all American students are proficient in math and reading by 2014. But even teachers, policymakers, and journalists are often confused about the law’s expansive provisions.

In No Child Left Behind Primer (Peter Lang, February 2006), co-authors Frederick Hess of AEI and Michael Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation have produced a concise yet comprehensive citizen’s guide to this complex law. In their book, the authors trace the origins of the act, explain how its many provisions work, and identify the effects of—and challenges to—its implementation.

Hess and Petrilli will discuss their book and what the future holds for NCLB, especially with reauthorization looming in 2007. Panelists Kati Haycock, director of The Education Trust; Alice Johnson Cain, senior education aide to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce; Joel Packer, manager of NCLB policy at the National Education Association; and former deputy secretary of education Eugene Hickok will contribute to the discussion.