No Child Left Behind: Article Analysis

With the NCLB’s focused emphasis on English and math standards, other educational areas such as the arts and sciences have been overlooked. The No Child Left Behind Act also focuses on bringing the lower scores up and not helping in raising the scores of those students who are already at higher levels leaving these higher achieving students behind in a push for equality. Although test scores have risen and the achievement gap between minority and white students has decreased, the No Child Left Behind Act has damaged the United States educational system by not addressing the needs of all students, forcing curricula to exclude arts, civics, foreign language and sciences, and emphasizing testing and not learning. It is time for a change.

Since the No Child Left Behind Act, also known as NCLB, has come into effect, it has caused some concerns with teachers and parents alike on how well it is working for the students. There have been issues that have arisen that needed to be addressed and instead been overlooked when a child does not meet with the school’s standardized testing and is pushed onto the next grade level.

The author's main point in this article was focusing on the problems of standardized testing in the school system. Ronald Roach states how in the past decade since the no child left behind program was established that there was no sufficient gains in the overall student math and reading scores. The author then goes on to explain how the Obama administration has been criticized over the issues of no child left behind program and how they are not effectively improving the program.

NCLB is a federal law that mandates a number of programs aimed at improving U.S. education in elementary, middle and high schools by increasing accountability standards. In 2002 there was a revision that, states must test more often to close the gap between minority students and those with disabilities.

“Unintended Educational and Social Consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act” Journal of Gender, Race and Justice, no. 2, Winter 2009, pp. 311. EBSCOhost. In this peer-reviewed academic journal article, Liz Hollingworth, an associate professor in the College of Education at the University of Iowa, explores the history of school reform in the United States, and the unintended consequences of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Hollingworth states that the great promise of NCLB is that schools will focus on the education of low-achieving students, reducing the gap in student academic achievement between White students and African-American, Hispanic, and Native American student populations. Hollingworth states that an unintended consequence of NCLB was that teachers and school administrators had to shift curriculum focus in an effort to raise test scores, but in some cases, they had to also abandoned thoughtful, research-based classroom practices in exchange for test preparation. NCLB also affected teachers, highly qualified teachers left high-poverty schools, with low performance rates especially those schools where teacher salaries are tied to student academic performance. Hollingworth concludes her article by stating “we need to be wary of policy innovations that amount to simply rearranging the deck chairs on the

No Child Left Behind (hereafter NCLB) was one of the largest and most comprehensive reauthorizations of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, created to “to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education.” That this legislation was monumentally important for the American education system, few researchers would dare to disagree — but this is where most agreement ends. Over 70,000 articles have been written on this legislation and it is easy to drown in the myriad of researched opinions on its successes and failures; there are almost as many opinions as there are articles on this topic.

This article in the Times newspaper, points out problems and flaws with the 2002 U.S. No Child Left Behind educational legislation, which was designed to improve education in the U.S. Topics that are discussed include, teachers complaints that No Child Left Behind policy sets impossible standards and forces teachers to teach based on the test material, and how the bill originally came to life by the proposal of former U.S. president George W. Bush. The other topic

After the Introduction of NCLB, test driven accountability has become the norm in public schools. Other stakeholders in the education sector have raised concerns that reliance on test as a measure of educational achievement may be misleading a move that NCLB has defended saying that theirs has been to direct attention to low achieving students with a view to improving their performances (Dee & Jacob, 2010). Analyses that have been conducted by stakeholder organizations have shown that NCLB impacts particular schools and districts differently.

The policy put a particular focus on ensuring progress of all students academically and boosting the performance of a critical group of students whose performance trail than their peers including the poor and the minority, students in special education and English-language learners. The NCLB policy marked the biggest intervention in education by the federal government in the United States. The purpose of the intervention was to transform publicly funded education from conception to adulthood. The policy aimed at improving education for all, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds for purposes of closing the gap between the white and colored students. The NCLB affects most components of the elementary and secondary education including assessment, curriculum, teacher qualification,

Over the past decade or longer schools in the United States of America have been tasked to produce successful students. In 2002, then-President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act, yet another phase of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (Cook, 2011). This has done little if anything to prepare students for college or life in general as the standardized tests used for assessing knowledge are actually a ranking method for evaluating aptitude rather than achievement and derived from United States Army Alpha Test, which was used to determine army recruits qualified for officer training (Cook, 2011). The success of schools, school districts, educators, and the students themselves has been measured by these standardized tests and higher ranking in overall scores equates to more funding for schools and higher pay for educators. What is left out of this equation is the students, how they are prepared for their future, and how successful they actually are or perceive themselves to be.

The No Child Left Behind Act should tremendously be re-examined and amended because the focus on the standardized tests decrease the quality of other subjects not on the tests, the tests are not an efficient tool to make certain that a student is receiving an excellent education and the tests create unnecessary stress for the students, teachers and administrators. The purpose of No Child Left Behind is to provide every student with the opportunity to receive a top-grade education. This is a great proposal to strive towards but, legislation plans on achieving this proposal by making schools responsible for their students’ proficiency and to measure their proficiency with the use of standardized tests. After the students take the

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 groups, students with disabilities and limited English proficiency students.

Education was the focus of George W. Bush’s Presidential campaign in 2000. Using the improved Texas educational system as an example, President Bush promised to change education in America for the better. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was the result of his promise. Bringing reform to American Education, the NCLB is the topic of much controversy. While the ideas supporting NCLB are sound, the methodology is lacking. The overreaching and poorly funded law failed to account for many of the variables that parents, teachers and schools face on a daily basis. While the law holds the

In 1993, “A Nation at Risk,” is released by the Department of Education, and is a report on the state of public education in the United states. The report warns that America and its students will not be able to compete in a global economy unless changes are made to our education system. “A Nation at Risk,” really sparks the desire in Americans to reform their education system for the first real time, and even though the report doesn’t specifically show what changes need to be made, it serves as a wake up call to America. In reaction to “A Nation at Risk,” President George Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in 2002. This act focused largely on closing the achievement gaps between students by “providing all children with a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education,” (No Child Left Behind Act, www.k12.wa.us). Inside the

The No Child Left Behind Act was to be President George W. Bush’s signature legislation coming into Office. After being delayed by the 9/11 Terror attacks, the act received wide bipartisan support and was passed into law. Its purpose was to “close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child (was) left behind” ("One Hundred Seventh Congress of the United States of America" 2008). In addition, “No Child Left Behind (aimed to continue) the legacy of the Brown v. Board decision by creating an education system that (was) more inclusive, responsive, and fair” ("A Guide to Education and No Child Left Behind-- Pg 13" 2007). Essentially, they were aiming to improve education with a problem definition amounting