No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is once again in the limelight. The Department of Education has just announced that states can renew their waivers from NCLB for 3-4 years but have to show incredible results in closing student achievement gaps, implementing college and career-ready standards, using effective teacher and principal evaluation system, and turning around low-performing schools.

If schools can meet these requirements, they can enjoy the waivers well into the next administration tenure. While some education advocacy groups are happy with the emphasis and solid plan for improving achievement for all groups of students, others — like teachers' unions — are unhappy with extended ties between teacher evaluations and student test scores, which they said could seriously undermine the standards.

For more than a decade, NCLB has been on the hot seat. It was introduced as a policy that would be a key driver for public school education across the country. Of course, like any other policy, it has had its share of debates and detractors. In spite of it all, this standardized test-based school reform has affected the education system, even if it is to encourage other reforms to come into being.

NCLB was brought into effect in 2001 to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, including the government's flagship aid program for disadvantaged students — Title I. NCLB proposed to set higher educational standards via measurable goals that would improve individual outcomes among the competition.

Despite its lofty ambitions, the act has faced more flak than other education reforms since it fell far short of the expectations it set. To see how NCLB has fared, a timeline review is warranted.

In 2012, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest) released the report called, "NCLB's Lost Decade for Educational Progress." Assessing and analyzing data from various independent studies and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the report outlined how NCLB has failed to reach its goals.

What has been even more distressing for some is the evidence that NCLB has actually endangered public school education by undermining other education reform efforts. It meant to help states develop assessments in basic skills with an increased federal role in the system.

By doing so, NCLB aimed to reduce achievement gaps and increase academic performance. But this one-size-fits-all testing has failed to uplift the standards in a system that is defined by its differences and diversities.

Things have been particularly tough for schools serving low-income students, which obviously cannot compete at the same level when they lack the resources that more privileged schools or well-funded school districts have. In order to make federal involvement more effective, the system needs to have alternative assessment that will take diversity into account and not have test-and-punish strategies define the future.

The neediest schools and students will have to be given that extra push so that they will be at par with the rest of the nation before any kind of tests and competition come into play. Only then can we talk of fair play and standardizations and then assess the true achievement meter. In the FairTest report, 10-year data shows how limiting the NCLB was on the poorer students, thereby damaging educational quality and equity.

Since then, various steps have been introduced to deal with NCLB's failures, namely the Senate Education Committee's Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization bill and various Obama administration waivers. However, not all of these steps have been effective, since they could not provide an alternative solution to many of NCLB's shortcomings.

Experts say that policymakers must step out of their comfort zones to reject these already-discredited models to design real and equal educational opportunity for all via the public education system.

Overemphasizing on testing and holding schools accountable for student performance has not really closed the achievement gap in America's schools. Instead it has created more deficits in funding that has ironically prevented some of these low-performing schools from achieving success any further.

The latest waiver-renewal proposal from the Obama administration seeks to continue with reform efforts that NCLB detractors have been advocating as well as lock down some of President Barack Obama's education policy changes.

This by no means allows for leniency or relief, which many had expected. Instead states have to work doubly hard to update their list of school performances. Special focus will be given to those who have been unable to close the achievement or graduation rate gaps, meaning they can expect more federal interventions in future.

Even adopting the Common Core State Standards is not going to be enough, experts say. Implementations of teacher evaluations that are linked with student performance will see increase in order to enjoy the waiver as well.