were well aligned with the standards.

In 2005, 44 states had at least 3 years of state assessment data for students with disabilities and 42 reported an upward trend in the percentage of students with disabilities who are benefiting from being instructed in more challenging grade level subject matter and making impressive gains.

In California, the gap in third grade reading proficiency between general education and special education students -- as measured by state reading assessments -- grew by 3 percent (to 21 percent) between 1999 and 2005. In Maryland and New York the achievement gap also has increased between general education and special education students. In 2004/05 the gap in reading in NY had reached nearly 50% while in MD, the gap stood at nearly 40 percentage points.

As ofMay 2006, only two states had established an acceptable definition of "high quality teacher" under NCLB and were using that definition to determine the status of teachers of core subjects.

As of May 2006, despite the legal requirements of NCLB, no states had in place a plan to ensure that poor or minority children were not being taught by inexperienced, unqualified or out-of-field teachers at higher rates than other states.

As of May 2006, only 13 states were fully compliant with NCLB in terms of providing parents and the public with accurate reports on the number and percentage of classes in core academic subjects taught by high quality teachers, and in notifying parents of students in Title I schools when their children had been assigned to, or taught for four