Educational Reformation Research Paper

On this momentous occasion, President Barack Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. This measure was meant to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 that was introduced during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society Reform. Most importantly, for Americans, it replaced the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) instituted during the presidency of George W. Bush. The Every Student Succeeds Act was touted by lawmakers for returning power back to the states by taking a more flexible approach to student testing and school accountability. This measure is a step in the efforts to return American to its place as a leader in education worldwide, but this bill is not without its pundits as well.

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.” In the 1880’s poll taxes and literacy requirements that afterward advocated African Americans to vote. Meanwhile Klan violence frightens from police and employers, blacks were still “protesting”about voting rights. As a result, there were over two dozen blacks serving in state congress across some

Black voting fell off sharply in most areas because of threats by white employers and violence from the Ku Klux Klan.The reading and writing ability test did not just keep out the 60 percent of voting-age black men (most of them ex-slaves) who could not read. It left out almost all black men because the clerk would select complicated technical passages for them to understand. Very differently, the clerk would pass whites by picking simple series of words that make sense and that have a subject and a verb in the state constitution for them to explain.Mississippi also puts into law a "grandfather clause" that allowed registering anyone whose grandfather was qualified to vote before the Civil War. Obviously, this benefited only white person (who

As said in PBS, “Literacy tests were used to keep people of color -- and, sometimes, poor whites -- from voting, and they were administered at the discretion of the officials in charge of voter registration” (The Rise and Fall of jim crow). They would give people that wanted rights a test on American history or laws If a black person went to take the test they would give them a harder test. Sometimes people trying ti gain rights could not even read in english. Also a lot of the blacks did not have a great education at the time so it made it extremely difficult for them. The Literacy test were unfair to some people that wanted

African Americans were taught to be “second class citizens” compared to white people, bowing to white men and having to be respectful to all the unlawful rules of segregation. The Klu Klux Klan was never causing the mayhem in Mississippi; an organization called the Citizens’ Council was the group generating the strife against the black community. The Citizens’ Council was running the state because it involved many political leaders, those in charge of voting registration, the police force, and mass amounts of citizens. Efforts were made by bold African Americans to increase the number of black voters in Mississippi, but people were too afraid to challenge the white community and those that did try to register to vote were simply denied. Many times, the poor black community did not receive food during the wintertime as a punishment for “defying the white man” by trying to register to vote; this was the last straw. In the summer of 1964, the campaign called Freedom Summer, or also known as the Mississippi Summer Project, was launched in order to bring awareness to the hateful and backwards setting of

During reconstruction the United States was divided on social issues, presidential campaigns were won and loss on these issues during this period. The struggle for development of African Americans and how they initiated change in political, economic, educational, and social conditions to shape their future and that of the United States. (Dixon, 2000) The South’s attempts to recover from the Civil war included determining what to do with newly freed slaves and finding labor to replace them. The task of elevating the Negro from slave to citizen was the most enormous one which had ever confronted the country. Local governments implemented mechanisms of discrimination to combat citizenship

During President Bush’s term, government became aware that American schooling needed major improvement. There was a need of a law which would improve the system while using scores to evaluate students as well as their teachers. "The fundamental principle of this bill is that every child can learn, we expect every child to learn, and you must show us whether or not every child is learning," (Secretary, 2002) President George W. Bush said on Jan. 8, 2002, signing ceremony of No Child Left Behind Act. However, this one size fits all approach revealed not be resourceful. "The goals of No Child Left Behind, the predecessor of this law, were the right ones: High standards. Accountability. Closing the achievement gap, but in practice, it often fell short. It didn 't always consider the specific needs of each community. It led to too much testing during classroom time. It often forced schools and school districts into

The No Child left Behind Act was intended to close the achievement gap in elementary and secondary schools by allowing each and every student the opportunity to have the best education possible. This law was signed by George W. Bush in 2001 who described it as a law that will, “Ensure that all children have a fair, equal and significant opportunity to obtain a high quality education”(Neill 2). The No Child Left Behind Act was only intended to help the students, but it is clear, not only to teachers, parents, and professionals, that it is time for a reauthorized law; One that each and every student can benefit from. The achievement gap in America’s school systems still exists. For the sake of America’s future, the school system must make a change now or the future of this country will suffer.

In the Summer of 1964, the Mississippi Summer Project, also known as Freedom Summer, was organized by several Civil Rights organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee and the Congress on Racial Equality. The event that caused the start of Freedom Summer were that many African-Americans were not registered to vote, this was because the southern states had implemented literacy tests that were unfair and could be interpreted differently, and Poll Taxes which were ridiculous amounts to pay ("Freedom Summer"). Other causes include the case of Plessy Vs. Ferguson, which stated the “Separate but Equal” clause, and also Racial segregation. Freedom Summer Volunteers included White Northerners, and the organization was made to focus on the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, Voter Registration, Freedom Schools, and Community Centers (“Timeline: Freedom Summer”). There was a need for the Freedom Summer because Many African-American People in the south were being oppressed by Literacy Tests and Poll Taxes.

Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act is a renewal of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which is an aid program for disadvantaged students. Although it does sound as if the Act is helping children all across the country, Alexandra Robbins thoroughly explains otherwise in her book, The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids. Within pages eighty five through eighty nine, Robbins thoroughly shows her negativity to the Act and why it’s hurting children rather than helping them. She uses hard facts, such as the emphasis on tests, altered curricula, and the corrupt college admission process to prove her point.

Freedom Summer appeared to be a voter registration project, which began in 1964. From passage of the Civil Rights Act to the expansion blacks voting in the south, it took time to achieve the desired effect. Since Freedom Summer was devised in Mississippi, its goals were to help African Americans register to vote, attend to the inequality matters such as education, and address the problem of disenfranchisement. The goals for this venture looked comprehensive, although Freedom Summer succeeded in accomplishing them admirably. An approach to such task began with the federal intervention to helping African Americans get voting rights , cruising smoothly into establishment of freedom schools, and challenging Mississippi’s whites’ delegates by claiming

In preparation for the movement it was noted that leading up to 1964, Mississippi had received far too little attention for how the state treated blacks. The Freedom Summer Project’s main goal was to raise awareness about the lack of voting rights for African Americans in the south and the summer of 1964 was chosen to push this movement because it was an election year. One of the main pieces of the project was setting up Freedom Schools to help educate black children and adults on things such as basic civil rights, black history, and American History. White Southerners felt threatened by the project and characterized the goals of the Freedom Summer differently than what they actually were. A June 1964 article published in the Charleston Post claimed that “(Freedom Summer) had nothing to do with voting” and that the two goals of the project were military occupation of Mississippi and to force socialist economics on the

Over the years, it has been a slow struggle for Africans to gain the full freedom they deserve. They have led many movements and protests to gain these freedoms, such as the Harlem Renaissance, creating the National Equal Rights League, and the Civil Rights Movement. By December of 1865, the Africans’ protests forced the Congress to establish the Civil Rights Act of April 1866, giving them their own basic personal rights. They were now able to purchase, inherit, create law suits, and own personal property. The blacks’ ambition for higher success and freedom in the late 1800s led to the opening of many black universities and colleges. They were used to train community leaders and teachers. Some of the first black institutions established during this time include Fisk University in 1866, Virginia Union University in 1865, Benedict College in 1870, and Hampton Institute in 1868. In 1864, the National Equal Rights League was founded to attempt to establish the right to vote for blacks. Frederick Douglass believed that until the Negro man was given the full right to vote, slavery was not abolished. Finally, in 1870, Congress gave black men the right to vote in the Fifteenth Amendment. The amendment quickly showed improvement in African American freedom. Black men were now able to hold office in local and national elections. Africans began serving terms as the speaker of the house, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and treasurer in South Carolina. From 1868 to 1897, 133 Africans served in the state legislature in Louisiana. Many Africans that were given the opportunity to serve in the U.S. government include Benjamin S. Turner, Robert B. Elliot, Joseph Rainey, and John Adams Hyman. In the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance flourished, making many whites aware of the beauty of the African culture. Many people became aware of the African American art, literature, politics, and music. Many of the famous blacks that led the renaissance included the composer Duke Ellington, actor Paul Robeson, musician Lois Armstrong, and blues singer Bessie Smith. The Harlem Renaissance’s influence spread internationally, and positively influenced many in the white community. Throughout the years of the black struggle for equal

In Mississippi during the 1950s, the voter application and literacy test were state required documents to be completed by literate peoples in order to be able to vote in the state. While it was easy for Caucasian applicants to complete these necessary items, African Americans residing in the state of Mississippi at the time that were seeking to vote had a harder time than others. For instance, questions 18 and 19 of the voter application and literacy test could vary which could allow the registrar open to choose any given section to applicants. Consequently, this would leave the Caucasian applicants in Mississippi to be given shorter sections to read as well as interpret while it was acceptable for African American applicants to receive a long,

President Obama’s next issue in the State of the Union Address was the need for education reform. President Obama talked about the need to improve the quality of education. Republican and Democratic governors throughout the country introduced a plan last year called Race to the Top; to summarize it states “If you show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement, we'll show you the money.” The President supported Race to the Top by giving an example of a high school in Colorado rated to be one of the worst in the state; after the first year the school went through rectification ninety-seven percent of the seniors graduated.