What Should Be The Focus Of American Public Schools

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 was put into place to provide extra money for children who do not have money while trading their knowledge using their test scores. The NCLB Act says that students are to be given yearly tests along with yearly report cards to track how well they are doing in school, in doing so, school is not about fun and socializing but now it is all business. These tests not only do not help the students learn but puts a load of stress on their shoulders, alongside that the tests have no purpose other than grading how well a students is able to retain information.

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.

The American public educational system is filled with an assortment of problems. Most students are graduating with less knowledge and capability than similar students in other industrialized countries. Classroom disruptions are surprisingly common, and in some classrooms, nearly continuous. The public education system is having difficulty adjusting to the no child left behind act. The No Child Left Behind(NCLB) is a landmark in education reform designed to improve student achievement and change the culture of American’s schools.

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 NCLB Act has become the largest intervention by the federal government. This act promises to improve student learning and to close the achievement gap between the white students and students of color. The law is aimed at having standardized test to measure student performance and quality of teacher. The Standardized exams are fully focused on reading and mathematics. This law characterizes an unequalled extension of the federal role into the realm of local educational accountability. High school graduation rates are also a requirement as an indicator of performance at secondary level. In low performing schools they get punished by receiving less funds and students have the choice to move to high performing school. The quality of our

No Child Left Behind, one of the biggest social engineering projects of our time, put fifty million students and their three million teachers under pressure ("A Failing Grade for No Child"). On January 8, 2002, President George W Bush’s NCLB Act was signed into law. NCLB is an education reform bill created to narrow the racial achievement gap. Recently, NCLB has made its way back into the news, simply because it has been up for renewal for over four years now and nothing has happened. This is significant because NCLB dictates how students are educated. NCLB has already affected student learning for many years now, and if renewed, it will continue to do so. The NCLB Act has failed in its mission to improve our schools and narrow the racial achievement

Many may believe that the United States school system is flawless; that no other countries school system or organization is as advanced as ours, “just like our government.” Those people need to come into the realization that our school system is broken, we need to be realists and not dreamers when it comes to something as serious as our education. Our school system has not been putting in the needed or required effort to reach the goals of true education or a good education that we, as students, deserve. Schools have been cheating us of what we deserve. Although some may believe our school system is perfect, it is not; our school system is broken and it needs to be fixed.

The Bush administration, as well as others, hoped to close achievement gaps and bring all children up to a higher standard. In order to do this, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was enacted with the hope of an extreme education reform. It requires strict accountability and assessments for schools. This was done without proper funding and expectations that are difficult for schools and students to reach. This act caused many problems in schools rather than fixing the problems that already existed.

Curriculum, assessment, accountability and quality are all key principles of NCLB. No Child Left Behind is a continued effort to support the education of the economically disadvantaged and handicapped students in America, as well as setting high expectations for all students. The intertwining of these principles are evident within the education system today. Curriculum that is aligned correctly and is assessed appropriately by highly qualified teachers, makes a significant difference in student performance and is reflected in accountability ratings of school districts, students, teachers, paraprofessional, and administrators across the country.

In this passage of No Child Left Behind, Congress reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the principal federal law affecting education from kindergarten through high school. In amending ESEA, the new law represents a sweeping overhaul of federal efforts to support elementary and secondary education in the United States. This new law focuses on policy and distribution of funds to public schools. Most federal funds under NCLB are distributed to school districts whose populations that are representative of lower economic levels and culturally diverse populations, which consists of African Americans, Native Americans, Asians, and Latinos. Proponents of the No Child Left Behind Act claim that its mission is to diminishing the achievement gap by holding school districts and states accountable, encouraging the use of more flexible educational approaches, and supporting parent’s rights to school choice

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) is a United States Act of Congress that is a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which included Title I, the government 's flagship aid program for disadvantaged students. No Child Left behind was enacted with the intent to become a government aid program for disadvantaged students, and eventually raise the general education standards for the United States. This act was created with the idea to “close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind” (ESEA) to put most simply. The act serves to only require certain basic skills, but does not have any national achievement standards, as it is decided on by each individual state. The bill was signed into effect by George W. Bush in January of 2002. Many people, opposers and supporters alike, argue that it is a "one-size-fits-all" approach to education and teaching that puts too much emphasis on testing and doesn 't fund schools properly, making it nearly impossible to achieve success. The law was initially designed to introduce national standards to a system in which students in some demographic groups were more likely to succeed and others likely to be left behind. But it allows states to determine how success is measured, which could be the source of its downfall.

The last century in American history has yielded educational reforms, federal legislations, school improvement plans and interventions, which consistently influence best practices in school systems. After the report, A Nation at Risk (1983), the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 was reauthorized in 2001 as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (U.S. Department of Education, 2001). This reauthorization was a call to attain educational equality for all American students and to lessen the achievement gaps between and among ethnicity groups, children of poverty, and disabled populations (U.S. Department of Education, 2001). Additionally, because of this increased scrutiny of student performance, other classification categories emerged such as gender.

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 was a U.S. Act of Congress, which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and effectively scaled up the federal role in holding schools accountable for student outcomes. According to Alyson Klein from an article called “No Child Left Behind: An Overview,” she explained that the NCLB’s purpose and goal was to advance American competitiveness and close the achievement gap between poor and minority students and their more advantaged peers. Overtime, the NCLB had a tremendous impact on teaching, learning, and school improvement, and with that, it also became increasingly controversial with educators and the general public (Klein, “No Child…”). The NCLB with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act had a

students. The NCLB Act monitors progress of all students by reading and math assessments. A goal of NCLB is that all students are found to be proficient in reading and math or the school district takes the change of not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress and possibly have federal or state repercussions. Accountability is the common link between all of these laws and many teachers describe feeling pressure as the result As the National Alliance for Secondary Education and Transition states, “exemplary schools consider the needs of all youth and implement academic and non-academic courses and programs of study that help all youth achieve successful post school outcomes such as postsecondary education and training, employment, and civic engagement” (National Alliance for Secondary Education and Transition, 2005, p. 4) .