No Child Left Behind Act

No Child Behind Act:

The history and continued debate of its effectiveness

As I filled in scantron form with my number two pencil, I remembered that writing my name was just as important as entering my school code. Thinking back to elementary school I can remember the week long exams. The week in which I longed to be sick just so I wouldn’t have to be spilt from my class and spaced out to test rigorously on my comprehension of various subjects.

This describes my first encounter with the ineffectiveness of standardized testing. Teachers were extremely stressed during this period as well but at the time I didn’t understand why. I remember the reading, writing, comprehension and mathematics testing and then things returning to business as usual after the exam were sent off to be graded. I never really paid this much attention because as a kid you learn to study a subject and then complete the examination to determine your knowledge. Interestingly enough as I progressed as a student I learned how the seemingly long boring timed test determined which courses you placed in. Until more recently I knew little to nothing about the education reform acts which mandated these awful tests.

Often people fear what they don’t understand furthermore they avoid task in which they simply can’t explain. The same is to be said about the No Child Left Behind Act. I’d love to say that through research I’ve developed a complete understanding about this act but that couldn’t be further from the truth. What I can say for certain is like many policies there is a beginning, a midpoint, and when all else fails reform or an end.

I begin my research with sole purpose of describing the standardized testing mandates. However, what I found through my explor...

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...speculating that Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary for Department of Education term will also end. Authors of Education Week have noted the original purpose of Department of Education as a response to the National Commission on Excellence in Education’s A Nation at Risk which condemned the country education system. Regardless of the person administering the policy I’m in favor of measurable goals that promote self-growth and skills that can be employed equally and equitably throughout academic studies, not just for the mere satisfaction of passing a benchmark. I’m in favor of continued education reform that involves teacher and student equality. I support the New Teacher evaluation tied to academic growth which is being rolled out according to education week and the implementation of Core Standard testing which will hopefully replace many of the standardized testing.