of the law in 2007."

Thus Teachers College President Susan Fuhrman set the stage for a two-day marathon in which researchers presented new data about NCLB and debated whether and how to fix the law, which was first enacted in 2002. NCLB is now nearly halfway to its target date of 2014, by which time the law stipulates that all U.S. students must be proficient in reading and math.

"Nothing is sacred, and we'll look at the Act in very profound and hard-hitting ways," said Michael Rebell, Executive Director of The Campaign for Educational Equity, which was convening the event. Other organizations, including a special commission of the Aspen Institute that has been holding hearings on NCLB, have also analyzed the law, Rebell said, "but they've already said they won'tin North Carolina. The percentage of students who were reported to be proficient or above on the state mathematics assessments in Grade 4 ranged from 39% in Maine and Wyoming to 92% in North Carolina. For Grade 8, the range was 16% in Missouri to 87% in Tennessee. Those ranges say more about the varying degree of rigor that states bring to their standards than it does about superior performance by states with more impressive numbers, according to researchers presenting at the symposium.

In 2006, one national study identified only 11 states with both strong content standards and assessments whose items closely matched the standards. In another study that looked at only 14 states, only one out of the 14 demonstrated high quality standards and high quality tests that