’No Child Left Behind’ requires states and school districts to ensure that all students are learning and are reaching their highest potential. Special education students should not be left out of these accountability mechanisms.

Feinstein frames the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability regime as a universal obligation: states and districts must demonstrate learning gains for “all students,” not only those easiest to test or most likely to raise averages. By explicitly naming special education students, she highlights a recurring policy risk in standards-and-testing systems—marginalized groups can be excluded, under-tested, or treated as statistical exceptions. The quote argues that equity requires visibility in measurement: if students with disabilities are omitted from accountability metrics, schools have weaker incentives to provide appropriate instruction, supports, and resources. In this reading, accountability is presented not as punishment but as a civil-rights mechanism to prevent neglect and to push systems toward inclusive educational outcomes.