In 2001, a bill called the No Child Left Behind Act was voted on to become a law. Former President George W. Bush was in office at the time of this bill becoming a law. He did the final signing to make the bill a law. This law was created during a time of national concern for the academic level of the schools in the United States. It requires that all public schools must test their students on reading, math, and science yearly. The goal of this law was to have every school to reach academic proficiency during the 2013-2014 school year (Education Week). Although the NCLB Act was meant to be helpful and ensure the better education of students, it puts immense amounts of pressure on students, suppresses teachers’ creativity, made a difference everywhere, some places have experienced positive differences and others negative, and it has inspired future bills that equally well-minded, but not enough to make a positive difference everywhere.
The pressure that is put on to the students of today’s public schools is incredible. Principals and school counselors walk into classrooms and inform students about how imperative it is to do their best on these assessments. They explain that if the class as a whole does not reach a certain goal, then the school and the teachers get in trouble and lose money (Terry). The principals know that it is important to inform the students of the challenges that they could face if they do not try very hard to do well. What they may not realize is that while their message gets through to the students, those students may take it to heart a little too much and feel like they need to be perfect, so their school does not get shut down. As a student who has lived through being told about the consequences of not p...
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The No Child Left Behind Act was supposed to be helpful, but instead it added stress to young students’ lives, stifled creative teaching styles, made a wide range of differences from excellent scores to the shutting down of schools, and spurred a future of bills that only improve parts of the national education. When all of these factors are considered, one can see that while the NCLB Act was meant for good, it created some very negative consequences.
Works Cited
"NCLB Making a Difference in Kansas." No Child Left Behind. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.
"No Child Left Behind." Education Week. N.p., 4 Aug. 2004. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.
"No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) | ESEA." National Education Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
Terry, Nickolas. “NCLBA Survey.” Survey. 2 Dec. 2013.
Trussell, Pam. Personal interview. 2 Dec. 2013.
Neill, Monty. "The No Child Left Behind Act Is Not Improving Education." Education: Opposing Viewpoints. New York: Greenhaven, 2005. 162-68. Print.
The policy “No Child Left Behind (NCLB)” is a policy where Federal legislation has mandated that children be tested, and where there is compliance with standards. Simply means, that all children must meet standards. The standards are defined by the states, and all children will be subject to testing, starting from as early as third grade. The students will be tested annually, in order to ensure that they are getting the type of education that they are entitled to, as determined by their performance on standardized tests.
Anatole France said, “An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don’t.” Through the No Child Left Behind program students are being tested in a manner that does not accurately measure learning. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB or The Act) Act was proposed in 2001, an addition to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, to assist students who have a disadvantage or are a minority. Through this Act students were required to take standardized tests. One main reason of implementing the standardized testing as a part of NCLB was to raise schools AYP, adequate yearly progress; this measures a schools progress in reaching certain standards set by the Federal Government. The Federal Government should eradicate the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 because it is creating substantial problems, limiting learning, and has proven to be ineffective.
The “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) act (P.L. 107-110), was signed into law by George Bush in 2001 to replace the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. NCLB has as one of its major requirements that all students from 3rd to 8th grade be required to take a standardized tests every year, and once in grades 9-12, these tests are on the subjects of math and reading, and must be expanded to science by 2007. In addition to the tests, states must implement an accountability system using the same assessment for all public schools in ...
"No Child Left Behind (NCLB)." GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community. Web. 02 Dec. 2011.
In order to determine whether or not the No Child Left Behind Act is doing its job successfully and efficiently, one must first understand exactly what is involved in the act. This act is the most recent renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Similar to laws in the past, this particular act has been revised and added to numerous times to make sure it encompasses everything necessary for the education system and the students. The No Child Left B...
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) deals with student achievement standards by holding schools accountable for the achievement of their students (Implementation 11). The NCLBA uses standardized tests to chart the success of students. If students are not meeting standards, the school is required to offer tutoring, which is funded by the state with Title I, the education mandate passed in which granted all public schools access to federal grants, money (No Subject 7). The Act itself is not the problem; the problem is that the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standard which is a big part of the NCLBA is not being met. The AYP standard is not being met because schools are not changing their methods quickly enough. It was said in the NCLBA that schools nationwide were to have 100% proficiency of the AYP standard within 12 years (Implementation 9). Since the passing of the NCLBA in 2001, most public schools, nationwide have not improved at all.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is currently the educational policy in the United States. Prior to NCLB the educational policies in effect were “A Nation at Risk, in 1987 America 2000, and a few years later with Goals 2000” (Eisner, 2001, p.21). No Child Left Behind is a test based accountability system used in schools to measure their performance holding the districts, administrators and teachers liable and accountable for the outcomes. Supovitz (2009) States that No Child Left Behind was a major reform initiative intended to bring about widespread improvements in student performance and reduce inequities between ethnic groups and other traditionally under-served populations like economically disadvantaged students, students from major racial
Just three days after taking office in January of 2001 as the forty third president of the United States, George W. Bush announced his plan of No Child Left Behind. Signed January 8, 2002, it was the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the central federal law in pre-collegiate education. (Rebora) No Child Left Behind cleared Congress in a landslide with overwhelming majorities. (Seligman) It was said to be the most ambitious school reform effort in at least a generation. (Symonds) No Child Left Behind, is a landmark in education reform, designed to improve student achievement and change the culture of America's schools. Bush describes his plan as 'the cornerstone of my administration' (Rebora).
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001’s main purpose was to enhance the education system and hold schools accountable in its attempt to bring equality in the fight against poverty for poor and minority groups. Once this Act was signed into law the American public expected an overhaul of the education system with only good outcomes. The public assumed our children would be receiving the best education available and the economic issues that plagued schools would no longer be a problem. In the beginning of its implementation No Child Left Behind was expected to bring America up to standards with other nations, this was something that America has struggled to do for many years. Our children were now being put first according to Act and the public and many political figures were ecstatic over the possibilities.
Maleyko, Glenn, and Marytza A. Gawlik. "No Child Left Behind: What We Know And What We Need To Know." Education 131.3 (2011): 600-624. Academic Search Elite. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
The Elementary and Secondary School Act has been amended on seven different occasions, but the most current is No Child Left B (NCLB). This act is a direct result of the 1994 amendment to the ESEA Improving America’s Schools Act (IASA), which is a result of the Clinton Administration and Goals 2000. Goals 2000, an act signed into law on March 31, 1994, set in place eight goals concerning school readiness, school completion, student academic achievement, leadership in math and science, adult literacy, safe and drug-free schools, encouraging teacher professional development, and parental participation (Paris, 1994). After Clinton signed Goals 2000, the IASA was implemented and signed on October 20, 1994, the new amendment to the ESEA that allotted $11 billion for most federally funded K-12 programs and enacts what is considered to be the most important changes made since the original act was passed in 1965 (Education Week, 1994). NCLB is the 2001 U.S. Act in accordance with which educational standards in primary and secondary education should be improved for students with disabilities to achieve successful individua...
Everyday school systems lose children’s attention and enthusiasm. When compared to National data, the No Child Left Behind law can be successful, but in the long run, it fails from the lack of creativity. In The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Students, Teachers, and Schools, the article states, “using data from a low stakes exam fielded in seven states over a 4-year period, identify the achievement consequences of NCLB” (Ballou & Springer, 160). Some of these consequences is only taking scores from certain grades and putting them towards the schools credibility. For instance the NCLB could take fourth grade reading scores, but not take fifth grade scores. This would not only leave a gap in the schools data, but could also potentially harm the schools reliability. Overall the NCLB is not accurate, nor is it credible. With all the gaps in data and the scores being lower than other international scores, the No Child Left Behind law needs to be
The No Child Left Behind Act was set into place with the goal to improve student performance in school, and close the achievement gap between students; as Stecher, Vernez, and Steinburg state, “When congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), it established an ambitious goal for the nation’s states, districts, and schools: All children will be proficient in reading and mathematics by the 2013-2014 school year” (1). While the No Child Left Behind Act was implemented with good intentions, the act itself is one of the main reasons the United States is falling behind in educational rankings. One of the most common complaints of parents surrounding the No Child Left Behind Act is the weakest link factor: the weakest student sets the pace in the classroom. The weakest student...
As Rodney Paige, former Secretary of Education, said, “We have an educational emergency in the United States of America” (Hursh, 2007). The American ideal of egalitarianism essentially states that individuals should have an equal opportunity to pursue their dreams, and an important part of being able to achieve this is attaining a quality education. Students of differing racial, cultural, socioeconomic, and ability levels should all have the same opportunities in receiving a high-quality education. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is seeking to change this. The NCLB is the current authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (Houston, 2007), which was passed during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. Every five years the ESEA is renewed. It is currently due for renewal in 2014.