The Nclb Act Of 2001 Required Schools Essay

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

NCLB reduces effective instruction as well as student learning by causing states to lower achievement goals and teacher motivation. Assertively, I support my argument that students who are disadvantaged or disabled do not reach the same proficiency as other students due to the simple fact that everyone learns differently, has different areas of strengths and weaknesses, and are essentially learning curriculum for a mandated state test that solely measures how well subgroups of children test on generic material based on each

The (No Child Left Behind Act of 2001), closing achievement gaps among various student groups became a primary focus for the federal education accountability. schools and districts were required to separate student test scores and performance data by student characteristics in order to better understand and make comparisons between the ethnic groups. This created better awareness of racial disparities, and an ever bigger concern about other

second largest and oldest city in Georgia with a population of about 200,000. The school district

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

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.

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

Kennedy wanted to come up with solutions to the poverty problem, but before he was able to initiate anything he was assassinated in 1963. Following Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson and the Johnson administration picked up where JFK left off. They launched the “war on poverty”, which was a series of programs designed to diminish the amount of people struggling to live the lives they deserved. There were four major components of the “war on poverty”: The Food Stamp Act of 1964, The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, The Social Security Amendments of 1965, and The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The combination of these acts covered each area that poverty had impacted. The Food Stamp Act gave people the opportunity to provide food for their families when otherwise their finances would not have allowed them to do so. The lack of employment opportunities was addressed with the Economic Opportunity Act by activating programs such as work-study programs that helped students with financial needs pay for school. The Social Security Amendments covered the lack of healthcare by providing Medicare and Medicaid as well as increasing benefits for college students, retirees, and disabled persons. The Elementary and Secondary Act help to fix the problem of financing the schools where majority of the low-income students were gaining their education as well as providing preschool for underprivileged children. The

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.

The poverty stricken families were suffering from finding aid from the government. Previously, the government denied the proposals Kennedy tried to pass, but once in office the poverty was addressed by Johnson. In his ¨Great Society Speech¨ Johnson stated that the ¨great society rests on abundance and liberty for all… demands an end to poverty,¨ and that is surely what happened (Document 1). From the beginning of his term to the end, from 1963 to 1969, the poverty rate decreased by 10 percent (Pg. 611). In document 3 it states that the decline of American poverty ¨was the most dramatic decline over such a brief period of time.¨ Johnson furthered his fight against poverty by declaring the war on poverty and he passed ¨forty programs that were intended to eliminate poverty by improving living conditions and enabling people¨ (Document 2).

The NCLB Act was created from initiatives originally introduced in the Elementary and Secondary School Act. The Elementary and Secondary School Act designed by then Commissioner of Education Francis Keppel and was passed on April 9, 1965. This was less than three months after the bill was first introduced. President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the 'War on Poverty' this being the most important educational component of the war. (Schugurensky, 2002) Through special funding this act allowed underprivileged and impoverished children a chance to receive education that met up to national standards.

The first area is, “Reducing learning gaps and increasing the achievement of all children.” The learning gap between low-income families and more fortunate families continues to increase as a child grows older. This is due to the child being exposed to fewer experiences. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) made schools accountable for teaching all of their students efficiently. Some believe NCLB is causing negative consequences for students, nevertheless NAEYC acknowledges the importance to close the gaps.

During President Johnson's term in office from 1964 to 1968, Johnson had declared a war on poverty. This is made evident when Johnson attempts to attack poverty at its roots. He states,

“ Historically, low-income students as a group have performed less well than high-income students on most measures of academic success” (Reardon, 2013). Typically low-income families come from low-income parts of the state making a school that does not have as much funding as a higher economic schools does lack in resources for their students. The school then has lower paid teachers and administrators, with lower quality supplies. This results in a school which typically has faculty who do not perform as well as the well-funded schools. “The law fails to address the pressing problems of unequal educational resources across schools serving wealthy and poor children” (Hammond, 2007). Students from low and high income families will not be able to achieve the same education because their education simply is not the same.