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No Child Left Behind Act Essay

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The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, President George W. Bush's education reform bill, was signed into law on Jan. 8, 2002. The No Child Left Behind Act says that states will develop and apply challenging academic standards in reading and math. It will also set annual progress objectives to make sure that all groups of students reach proficiency within 12 years. And the act also says that children will be tested annually in grades 3 through 8, in reading and math to measure their progress. The test results will be made public in annual report cards on how schools and states are progressing toward their objectives.

States will have until the 2005-06 school year to develop and apply their tests. Once the tests are in place, schools …show more content…

The No Child Left Behind Act also has a very narrow focus on curriculum. The act focuses on just math and reading scores. This could have an undemocratic effect on a large generation of students in poorly performing schools. Schools would have take away much of the broad education in order to elevate scores on just two subject areas. Students in wealthy schools with good test scores will continue to learn a full range of subjects including art, social studies and science, while the students who scored poorly on the tests, will be receiving education in only two subject areas. It is not right to put two subjects as the top priority. This means that not all students will get a complete education. This concern with literacy and math skills divides education into two groups. One group is forced to learn basic skills and the other group gets the more complete education. The goal of raising the performance level of all students is an honorable idea, but the change in performance should be in all subject areas not just math and reading.
The No Child Left Behind Act's main provisions ignore the fact that poorly performing students will somehow become good readers by moving to a school with good scores. The chance that the previously successful school

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