The 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.

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.

Some people might like education, others might dread it and really don’t see a reason to continue learning about it. Today, for teachers and professors it’s easy to them to tell how the education they teach is effective for an individual student. As we know, education is being taught at school, home, and a little of both. For America today, most children attend preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle school, high school, and college. Depending on the pupil's career choice, it can take up to 20 or more years completing their schooling system, Usually, during the middle and or high school years in America, professors teach you valid things pupils will be using in life.

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

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

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 idea of the no child left behind act also known as NCLB was establish and signed into law on January 8, 2002 by former president George W. Bush which was actually supported by both of the political parties. The entire role of the No Child Left Behind act was to ensure the focus of American students to the better idea of getting the American educational system back into the competitive field internationally seeing that in the year 2002 the United States of America was actually ranked number eighteen out of the entire twenty four nations. The No Child Left Behind law has mad a huge break through Americas entire educational system. The NCLB law has given a much greater deal of attention to the way things are being done in the classroom and how it prepared for the classroom which is a important factor in bring America as a country to a much high number in the list of education throughout the world.

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).

On January 8, 2002, George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law (also known as the NCLB). The No Child Left Behind Act was the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, a federal education bill addressing the nation’s schools. At his signing ceremony, Bush stated, “There’s no greater challenge than to make sure that every child—and all of us on this stage mean every child, not just a few children—every single child, regardless of where they live, how they’re raised, the income level of their family, every child receive a first-class education in America.” Although his pledge became the hope for improved education reform, effects have only been negative and contradictory to what they have promised.

Education is a very important aspect of the lives of all people all over the world. What we learn, not just in the classroom, shapes who we are. We take our education everywhere we go. We use it when talking to our buddies about sports or music, we use it while solving a math problem, we use our education while debating with our family whether or not we should watch TV or go to the movies. Our education is the foundation of who we are, since every decision we make and every thought we think is dependent on what we know. Imagine how different the world would be if everyone craved learning to such a degree that at lunch tables all over the world the topic of conversation isn't who likes who, or how drunk