The Importance Of No Child Left Behind Act

The No Child Left Behind Act was based on the Elementary & Secondary Education Act of 1965. The act was established based on the promise of Thomas Jefferson to create a free public education system in Virginia (Hammond, Kohn, Meier, Sizer & Wood, 2004). The act is now reauthorized as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The purpose of the No Child Left Behind Act was to make sure that children were given a fair, quality education. The act set out to close the achievement gaps in education, which were caused by children living in poverty, living with disabilities, children who were of different ethnic backgrounds and English learners. The proposed methods of the act targeted all children and provided an equal opportunity to meet

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

Abernathy, Scott Franklin. No Child Left Behind and the Public Schools. U of Michigan P, 2007. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). In this eBook, Scott Franklin Abernathy, an Associate Professor of Political Science and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota, presents a balanced critique of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Abernathy argues that all policy makers must ask themselves “Can we ever really know if a child’s education is good?”, rather than assuming any test can accurately measure the elusive thing called a good education. Along with strengths and weakness of NCLB, Abernathy also presents many new models that law makers have been seeking to replace or use

The policy states that there will be more funding’s for schools when in the past year’s public schools have been struggling on keeping after school programs. There was cut downs made in public schools because of lack of funds. Programs that were affected were various types of tutoring, homework clubs, and so forth. Parents have been concerned on the unfairness of this policy when dealing with students with disability and those who English is their second language.

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

Initiated in 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 intended to prevent the academic failures of educational institutions and individual students, as well as bridge achievement gaps between students. This act supports the basic standards of education reform across America; desiring to improve the learning outcomes of America 's youth. This act was supposed to help the kids with their math, reading and math skills, but it just adds more pressure to the students especially for the children with learning disabilities (LD). The state has the students take the keystone exams which used to be called the PSSA`s.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was authorized by and signed into law in 2002. NCLB was a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. NCLB was meant to hold schools to higher standards, enforce accountability, and close achievement gaps that had existed in education since ESEA was enacted. Nevertheless, the rigorous standards and goals set forth under NCLB were never attained. ESEA Flexibility could be attained from the U.S. Department of Education starting in 2012. The accountability plans states were allowed to develop under their ESEA Flexibility replaced Adequate Yearly Progress or AYP that was established under No Child Left Behind.

“Accountability is incredibly important for the school systems. People shouldn't fear accountability, they ought to welcome an accountability system as a useful tool to make sure no child is left behind” George Bush quoted. When the No Child Left Behind Act was passed in 2001, president George Bush along with many other people had different expectations at that time. Expectations that included improvement in testing scores, progress increase in grades along with improvement in teachers. For a short period of time this appeared to have worked, however with the course of time it is evident that NCLB has many flaws that have reflected in the outcome.

The No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law January 8, 2002 , by George .W Bush. The Act is a re-authorization of the Secondary Education Act, The No Child Behind Act was put into effect in order to help close achievement gaps and improve education within the public school system using various techniques so that no child would be left behind. In order to achieve the goals of the act, procedures were to be followed by public school system, Bush suggested that schools test students in grades third through eight, in math and reading and publicly release the results. So therefore the regulations were set, but less progressing schools would experience penalties. These penalties included, using massive piece of school funding toward teaching development, as well as replacing staff if needed, making new curriculum, and any school that fail over six times within a row could experiences a shut down. The regulations and penalties that followed the No Child Left Behind Act, added pressures on students as well as teachers whom were forced to teach to the test and achieving difficult short term goals. Indeed, the idea behind the No Child Left Behind Act sort out to provide beneficial goals for students worldwide, however only left majority involved disappointed and distressed. Within the last ten years that the Act has been in effect it has caused teachers to simplify test materials in hopes of gaining higher test score in order to keep schools from shutting down. This

“We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail,” is a quote said by former president, George W. Bush, in his address to a joint session of Congress after the September eleventh attacks. The beginning of the twenty-first century marked a start of a revolution. A revolution of social change and global peace. The 2000’s is a decade of advanced technology, new and improved adjustments, and a decade of remembrance.

As far as learning for standardized testing goes there is a federal act involved that plays a role in the educational system and controls how the educational system teaches and tests these students. This act is named, The No Child Left Behind Act. This act makes standardized assessments mandatory for all fifty states. This law serves a purpose to test students in reading and math for grades three through eight. In high school, students are required to test and they are expected to meet or exceed state standards in reading and math. (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) “The major focus of No Child Left Behind is to close student achievement gaps by providing all children with a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education” (Elementary and Secondary Education Act). But since the early 2000s, has this act kept it promise or has the responsibility of this act been not meeting these standards? When this law was first placed, it was said that this act would make it possible for students in the United States to become proficient in math and reading by the year 2014. (National Council of Churches Committee on Public Education and Literacy) But, does this mean that every student in the U.S. will meet these expectations? The National Council of Churches Committee on Public Education and Literacy does not believe so. “The No Child Left Behind Act sets an impossibly high bar—that every single student will be proficient in reading and math by 2014. We

The No Child Left Behind Act essentially mandates standardized testing. Every state is expected to develop standards and a testing system. With this act, each state is required to test students of grades 3-8 on reading and math every year, and students in high school are expected to be tested once throughout their high school career. Another important aspect of the No Child Left Behind Act is its establishment of academic early progress, or benchmarks, schools are expected to meet each year. Every school is expected to demonstrate its academic yearly progress, or AYP, and if it does not, the school may be forced to send their students to a higher performing school or offer free tutoring (Klein, par. 9). If a school consistently misses AYP,

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was passed in 2001.This law mandates that all students are required to have access to the general education curriculum and participate in accountability testing. Specifically “all students with disabilities should have access to, participate in, and make progress in, the general curriculum,” (Ayres, K. M., Lowrey, K. A., Douglas, K. H., & Sievers, C., 2011). The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) of 2004 ensures students with disabilities have access to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE), meaningful, and in the least restrictive environment. There is a huge disconnect between implementing both laws because NCLB holds stakeholder’s accountable for teaching students with severe disabilities from the general curricula but on the other hand IDEA mandates students learn from an individualized curricula that support their post- secondary needs.

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).