No Child Left Behind?

I am writing a research paper for my English class. It's more of an issues paper, and I am going to talk about education law and federal vs. state power when it comes to education. Whose responsibility is it? How have both branches (federal and state) been attempting to equalize the quality of education? How have they succeeded? How have they fallen short? What are some things each could do differently? What are some alternative solutions? 

So that's pretty much it. It's going to be some hefty research, and I want to find some good statistics - high school dropout rates, ACT scores, AP courses taken, AP exams taken, reading levels, etc etc - and compare schools before NCLB, and after NCLB, and analyze pretty much that entire law (NCLB). I downloaded the entire text from the US Department of Education. It's going to be a nice long read... probably potty reading ;) Heh, just kidding. 

If you have any opinions, please feel free to leave them here, or email me. I'm trying to collect as many different viewpoints as possible. 

Wish me luck!