No Child Left Behind Argumentative Essay

No Child Left Behind, a federal law created to offer support and benefits to disadvantaged students, put into place in 2001 under the Bush administration, altered the landscape of American education, as we know it. It emphasized student performance on standardized test scores and other forms of assessment. Along with this change came the added pressure put onto the nation’s teachers. Teacher performance was now being judged on how students performed on tests, rather than how they were able to regurgitate the information in various other forms, such as papers, illustrations, and class presentations. Linked to NCLB, is the Race to the Top fund, which provides grants and funding to schools that expanding their boundaries to create new opportunities

According to the US Department of Education website, “the federal government has worked with states to develop waiver agreements that unleash local leaders’ energy for change and ensure equity, protect the most vulnerable students, and encourage standards that keep America competitive. The waiver renewal process announced today will support states in continuing positive change and ensuring all children receive a high-quality education”. This wavier process grants each state the freedom to decide what methods they believe are best for their schools in order to achieve

Much of the research organizations, such as the Health Research Funding organization, have all identified the following positive and negative results of the No Child Left Behind legislation. Positive results include improvement of overall test scores; teachers are better qualified; quality education provided to all students regardless of race, disability, or socio-economic status; and parents are better informed of the academic progress of their children. “The state-by-state Nation’s Report Card results, released in October 2005, showed improved achievement in the earlier grades in which NCLB is focused. In the last two years, the number of fourth-graders who learned their fundamental math skills increased by 235,000 – enough to fill 500 elementary classrooms!” (US Department of Education, 2015). Negative results include budget cuts to areas that are not tests such as arts programs due to lack of funding; “teaching to the test”, which hinders teacher’s creativity; and lack of teachers with high qualifications due to the plethora of assessments and strict requirements. It has been found that teacher’s who are highly qualified tend to be employed in wealthier school districts that provide higher pay, leaving poor school districts that could benefit greatly from highly qualified teachers with educators without the proper