Parents Left Behind: a Top Down Policy Study of Section 1118 of No Child Left Behind

Parents Left Behind is an in-depth analysis of the policy implementation process for Section 1118 of No Child Left behind (NCLB) federal legislation. Section 1118 was designed to increase parental involvement in local schools. Four years after being signed into law, the question of how Section 1118 is understood and is being implemented by selected stakeholders, from the local, state, and federal levels were not answered in the available literature. This multi-level case study began the examination effort by describing how parental involvement programs were being implemented according to federal mandates in NCLB and how policy decisions to implement this law were made and interpreted by public actors at each governmental level to the street level context of the New Orleans Public School District. Findings from this study suggest that resources for implementation, were, at best, inadequate; communications and translations of the policy have been slow; and, parents and teachers have been left behind, not having been significantly involved in or informed about the policy. The study provides insights and recommendations for federal policymakers, State Education Authorities (SEA), and Local Education Authorities (LEA) to improve implementation and monitoring in future iterations of the law.