No Child Left Behind Act

The education system is deeply flawed. It does not fight social injustice, but rather exacerbates the issue. The majority of people in the U.S are blind to the fact that there are still inequities within the education system, much less everyday life. A system based on standardized test scores inadvertently oppresses poor people. The Governments ' decision to judge a schools ' success by its test scores evidently created a faucet of running water for systematic oppression. The flowing water of oppression floods poor schools; drowning students with dreams, and giving no mercy. The only ones safe from the water are the privileged, who are oblivious to the fact that it exists.

When President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) into law in 2002, the legislation had one goal-- to improve educational equity for all students in the United States by implementing standards for student achievement and school district and teacher performance. Before the No Child Left Behind Act, the program of study for most schools was developed and implemented by individual states and local communities’ school boards. Proponents of the NCLB believed that lax oversight and lack of measurable standards by state and local communities was leading to the failure of the education system and required federal government intervention to correct. At the time, the Act seemed to be what the American educational system

Good intentions are no excuse to continue a fail policy. Since the No Child left Behind Act (NCLB) became in effect, teachers have been restricted to teach in a certain way.

First, what is the achievement gap? According to the achievement gap in education refers to systematic variances in the ability to learn between students from majority populations and students from minority populations. The most significant effort made by the federal government to improve the nation 's schools and student learning is the 2002 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The ESEA was largely designed to address the achievement gap in multicultural education. However, improvement in the academic performances of poor and minority students has been slow over the last forty years.

The purpose of this paper is to address the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 10, 2015. The paper will also address the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) which was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002. The paper will talk about some of the key components of ESSA in comparison with NCLB and identify some possible strengths and weaknesses in ESSA’s new approach.

When assessing educational legislation and whether it is good or bad law can be muddled by the fact that some part of the law is good versus some being bad. Also, the passing of time can change the viewpoint of such legislation. For instance, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was largely accepted as a good piece of legislation when the law was enacted, but with the passing of time, we have seen that the NCLB has its problems. The lack of truly funding the legislation, coupled with the fact that standardized testing given to each student, regardless of disability or English as a second language (ESL) status causes issues within some areas of the education system. Even so, there are still parts of the NCLB that are good for education as a

George Eastman once said, “The progress of the world depends almost entirely upon education.” By its public school system, the United States of America exemplifies this. Federally denied to none and paid by all, United States citizens have the opportunity to attend public school, should they choose. Over the past fifty years, America’s education system has undergone multiple changes. It began with President Lyndon B. Johnson signing into action the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) as an extension of his “War on Poverty” plan. ESEA funded primary and secondary education, encouraged equal access to schooling, established lofty standards and accountability - all done with the intention of closing the achievement gap

At inception, the NCLB Act was thought of as revolutionary, and in some ways it was. The larger use of data helped superintendents, school boards, and teachers identify students that were in need of additional instruction and offered parents a view of the quality of the schools. But, even with these innovations, the NCLB Act had some weaknesses. The Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is a “one-size-fits-all” standard that hampers states’ and school districts’ ability to appropriately gauge the learning done by the students and to tailor the schools’ curriculums to enable the students to graduate high schools successfully prepared for any postsecondary education or the workforce. The system of mandated

The No Child Left Behind Act was the biggest educational step taken by president Bush and his administration. Its main goal included the increase of achievement in education and completely eliminate the gap between different racial and ethnic groups. Its strategies had a major focus on uplifting test scores in schools, hiring “highly qualified teachers” and deliver choices in education. Unluckily, the excessive demands of the law have not succeeded in achieving the goals that were set, and have caused multiple opposing consequences. These unintended consequences affect students negatively which are who the law is most intended in helping. These consequences include a high focus on the low‐level skills which are reflected on high stakes tests; bad assessment of students who have English as a second language and students with special needs; and compelling incentives to eliminate students who score very low from school, so the test scores are achieved to their full potential and their goal (Darling‐Hammond, 2007).

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.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which was passed Congress with overwhelming support in 2001 and was signed into law by President George W. Bush on Jan. 8, 2002, is the name for the most recent update to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The NCLB law¬ which grew out of concern that the American education system was no longer internationally competitive¬¬ significantly increased the federal role in holding schools responsible for the academic progress of all students. It put a special focus on ensuring that states and schools boost the performance of certain groups of students, such as English language students, students in special education, and poor and minority children, whose achievement, on average, fell below their peers. States did not have to comply with the new requirements, but if they didn’t, they risked losing federal Title I money.

The "No Child Left Behind Act" (Public Law 107-110, 115), is a Congressional Act signed into law by George W. Bush in January 2002. The Bill was a bi-partisan initiative, supported by Senator Edward Kennedy, and authorized a number of federal programs designed to improve standards for educational accountability across all States, districts, and increase the focus on reading. Much of the NCLB focus is based on the view that American students are falling behind in educational basis when scored are compared globally. The Act does not establish a national achievement standard; each State must confirm its own set of standards, but in order to receive funding, the States must meet a basic criterion of performance (Abernathy, 2007).

Under the most current statewide mandates of the No Child Left behind Act (NCLBA) (Bush, 2001) educators in the public school system must raise the bar for teaching. This means teaching classroom lessons to effectively educate all styles of learning and bringing students to proficient levels of being educated. Schools are expected to meet these challenges by hiring qualified teachers who are well trained and educated to instruct daily assignments for students. In March of 2010, the Obama Administration sent to Congress a reform amendment of the public schools, NCLBA, to help close some achievement gaps. President Obama has called on Congress to fix the laws to benefit and prepare all students for college or career readiness.

Education is a common topic and is frequently studied, especially since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001 by President George W. Bush. Mississippi is often ranked near the bottom of the list when compared to other states in terms of education quality and performance. In a report by Ladner and Myslinski (2014), Report Card on Education, Mississippi was ranked number 43 out of 51 (50 states plus the DC area) for the 2013 school year. While this is an improvement compared to 2011 when we were ranked number 48, there is still much work to be done.

The brain is constantly changing throughout one’s life. This undoubtedly has a tremendous effect on their cognition and learning, at every stage of their development, Dweck on others would show (Dweck, 2006). Whether one “...sees their intelligence as something that is fixed or something that can grow and change—has profound effects on their motivation, learning, and school achievement (Dweck, 2006).”