The Web resources listed below that were not developed by the U.S. Department of Education are provided as examples of materials that may be helpful to the reader. The listings should not imply an endorsement by the Department of the resources or the Web sites. There also may be many other useful Web sites on these topics.

NCLB Information for Parents and the Public

The U.S. Department of Education has published No Child Left Behind: A Parents Guide (2003) along with other information for parents and educators at http://www.ed.gov/nclb/.

The Learning First Alliance has published A Practical Guide to Talking to Your Community About No Child Left Behind and Schools in Need of Improvement and provides links to other organizations' materials at http://www.learningfirst.org/.

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) has an extensive section on communications, including several pieces with tips for communicating effectively that were written by communications professionals at KSA-Plus Communications, at http://www.ccsso.org/federal_programs/NCLB/.

The Education Trust has a collection of materials on NCLB, including the No Child Left Behind User Guide and fact sheets for parents and the community. It also publishes The ABC's of "AYP" at http://www2.edtrust.org/edtrust/ESEA/.

The School Information Partnership is a public-private collaboration designed to empower parents, educators, and policy-makers to use required No Child Left Behind (NCLB) data to make informed decisions and improve school results. Standard and Poor's created the Web site, which includes a suite of interactive analytical tools from Standard and Poor's School Evaluation Services and the National Center for Educational Accountability's Just for the Kids. For schools, districts, and states across the nation, the Web site displays available data required to be publicly reported under NCLB. This initiative is funded by The Broad Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education. See the Web site at choice http://www.schoolmatters.com.

School Choice Information

The Center for School Change at the University of Minnesota works with educators, parents, business people, students, policy-makers, and other concerned people throughout the United States in a number of ways: to increase student achievement; raise graduation rates; improve student attitudes toward learning, their schools, and their communities; and strengthen communities through building stronger working relationships among educators, parents, students and other community members. See the Web site at http://www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/school-change/.

The National Governors Association (NGA) operates the NGA Centers for Best Practices, an online resource that includes links to promising practices in different aspects of NCLB, including public school choice at http://www.nga.org/center/.

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation provides links to major studies and to around 50 other organizations' Web sites in the areas of charter shools and choice at http://www.edexcellence.net/.

The Center for Education Reform provides up-to-date-reports on choice and charter school activity around the country. Its Web site links to "fast facts" and resources designed with parents in mind at http://www.edreform.com/.

The Office of Innovation and Improvement in the U.S. Department of Education operates the Voluntary Public School Center Choice grant program and offers other resources at http://www.ed.gov/programs/choice/.

The Education Commission of the States maintains an extensive database about NCLB, including detailed information about requirements in different states. The law's choice provisions are tracked as one of several key sub-issues at http://www.ecs.org/.