States are edging closer to compliance with No Child Left Behind but are a long way off in some areas, according to an Education Week survey conducted for the paper's forthcoming (January '03) Quality Counts 2003 report. In the absence of timely guidance from the Department of Education, states "appear to have taken a wait-and-see attitude about changing their accountability systems or their requirements for teacher licensures." More rapid progress has been made in instituting annual testing in reading and math in grades 3-8; 19 states and the District Columbia have such a regimen in place in advance of the 2005-06 deadline. For more survey results, see "States Strive Toward ESEA Compliance," by Lynn Olson, Education Week, December 11, 2002.
