NCLB, the most recent version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, was preceded by the Improving America’s Schools Act. Under that law, high-quality teaching and learning were not prevalent in all schools, and achievement gaps persisted, leading to agreement that a greater federal role for accountability was necessary—from which NCLB was born. NCLB authorized 45 programs in 10 different areas, but public debate tended to focus on the law’s testing, accountability, and teacher-quality requirements. NCLB required that students be tested in the subjects of English language arts (ELA) and math in grades three through eight and once in high school, and for states to use the results to assess how well schools were meeting “adequate yearly progress” goals for student proficiency in these subjects. Schools that consistently did not meet these goals overall, or for subgroups of students, were targeted for interventions, and eventually for sanctions.
In 2001, NCLB established legislation in a sweeping overhaul of federal effort to support elementary and secondary education. The legislation (Section 11: Title III) holds school districts accountable for English proficiency and is based upon improved student achievement and accountability for results with an emphasis on doing what works based on scientific research (Boward County Public Schools, 2010). With NCLB accountability, districts much describe how they will hold elementary and secondary schools accountable for meeting the goals and objectives for increasing the English proficiency of current ELL’s (Boward County Public Schools, 2010). Districts must also hold elementary and secondary schools accountable for meeting the goals and objectives for increasing academic achievement for all current and former ELL’s (Boward County Public Schools, 2010). Further required is an improvement plan that outlines interventions and procedures implemented if districts fail to meet the Annual Measureable Achievement Objectives (AMAO). Procedures and implementation are monitored by SALA (Bureau of Student Achievement through Language Acquisition) (Florida Department of Education).
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
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
This author discusses the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001(NCLB) and it mandates that every student in K-12 public schools will reach basic proficiency in math and reading by 2014. The goals of the accountability component of NCLB place emphasis on closing the achievement gap for all public school students, regardless of their socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or disabilities. The Federal Government mandates annual testing of all students in grades three through eight on challenging state standards for mathematics and reading (Beisser 2014). The author noted that the federal mandate didn’t intend on leaving any students behind, but after the law was passed it became evident that the United States has provided more, time, attention, resources and policies in the direction of students who scored below achievement level in reading and mathematics.
The NCLB Act of 2001 required schools to develop reform efforts so that all children would meet state academic content and achievement standards (NCLB, 2002). The federally mandated reforms that were included in NCLB forced all school districts to continually evaluate current educational programs and determine how to meet the federal guidelines, most notably the elimination of the achievement gap between all student subgroups. However, there are multiple factors that can contribute to the achievement gap among student groups, including student mobility which is not measured through standardized tests.
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.
The No Child Left Behind Act “NCLB” was a bill passed by the Senate in 2001 and signed into law by President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002. It was a revision of the Elementary and Secondary Act “ESEA” of 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson. The NCLB was intended to help children in lower-income families achieve the same standard of education as children in higher income families. This was done by the federal government providing extra finances for Title I schools in exchange for a rise in academic progress. According to Fair Test, if a state wanted to receive funding through the NCLB, the state had to set a proficiency level through standardized testing in grades 3-8 and once in high school, and report those scores to the public (Fair Test). The NCLB act had a goal of reaching 100% proficiency in all schools by the end of the 2014 academic school year This goal would mean a dramatic change in the schooling system and how we look at and treat education. Not only would the students be affected nationwide, but so would teachers and schools. But should the government and politicians be allowed to govern what is being taught in our children’s classrooms instead of their teachers? Although the intentions of the NCLB Act were noble and for the benefit of all, good intentions don’t make for a good education.
According to the Nation’s Report Card, only forty percent of 4th graders and thirty-three percent of 8th graders are performing at or above levels of proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics test in 2015. These numbers are unchanged from 2013, showing that no progress is being made. The United States education system needs to drastically be reformed so that our test scores and work output is comparable to that of higher-achieving nations such as China and Japan. One policy currently in place that is making it difficult for teachers to teach the way they would like is the No Child Left behind Act. The act was originally made so that schools are held accountable for their students’ progress, parents get more choices of which school their children will attend and so that there is more flexibility for how funds can be distributed by the schools. The No Child Left Behind Act needs to be reformed because it encourages teachers to teach to the tests, gives money to schools already succeeding, and forces teachers to focus mainly on students struggling rather than average or excelling students.
At inception, the NCLB Act was thought of as revolutionary, and in some ways it was. The larger use of data helped superintendents, school boards, and teachers identify students that were in need of additional instruction and offered parents a view of the quality of the schools. But, even with these innovations, the NCLB Act had some weaknesses. The Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is a “one-size-fits-all” standard that hampers states’ and school districts’ ability to appropriately gauge the learning done by the students and to tailor the schools’ curriculums to enable the students to graduate high schools successfully prepared for any postsecondary education or the workforce. The system of mandated
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) holds all elementary schools, regardless of student characteristics, accountable for achieving proficient student scores in reading and math. By demanding that schools report achievement for racial, ethnic, and economic subgroups, the accountability system aims to shine a light on schools that “leave children behind.”
The current version of the “Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001” is “The NO Child Left Behind Act of 2001”. Which supports “standard-base” education reform, each state is responsible for developing assessments in basic skills and standards. The Federal Government’s plays a part over seeing in annual testing, annual academic progress, report cards, teacher qualifications, and funding changes. This law was originally apart of the Johnson administration’s war on poverty campaign to improve educational equity for students form lower income families. This law has been revised seven time most recently in January of 2002. Schools who fail to make adequate yearly progress for two years in a row the school is flagged for a “school improvement plan”. Has to devote at least 10 % of its federal funding to teacher’s professional development, then if the school still does not show improvement within three years corrective action is taken and the school must interventions to improve school performance from a list of legislations. If improvements are not made for a fourth year are supposed to be restructured with more rigorous interventions. If the school still fails to make yearly progress in the fifth year there is actions taken such as reconstruction faculty, leadership and governance arrangements by converting to a charter school, or converting to a privately management company. The
Numerous studies have detailed the small successes and numerous failures associated with NCLB and the need for change (Aldeman, 2015, Dee & Jacob, 2010, Hess, 2015). Because it is still so new, there is less scholarship evident regarding the Every Student Succeeds Act. When ESSA was made into law in December, 2015, popular media hailed its’ passage as a referendum against the NCLB and a cause for celebration. The Wall Street Journal described it as “the largest devolution of federal control to the states in a quarter-century” and the New York Times described ESSA as “the end of an era in which the federal government aggressively policed public school performance, and returned control to states and local districts.”
Today’s emphasis on school and teacher accountability has taken the focus away from our main objective which is student learning and achievement. The rise of both school and teacher accountability became a detrimental aftermath of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. The NCLB Act of 2001 set about using state-mandated assessments to hold schools accountable for a student’s performance on the standardized tests with the purpose of closing the achievement gaps among all students regardless of race, class or disability, while attaching high-stake consequences to
Making the NCLB Act effective is quite a chore for the federal and state legislation. The positive influences for the act are quite controversial. Accountability standards are set and measured on a yearly basis by each individual state. The educator’s qualifications and standards are also state and federally mandated. Reading, math and writing are the key academic subjects that are measured. The goal is to close the gap among race, socioeconomic groups, and disabled students. The schools tend to focus on these areas, while they direct the education toward the test taking success rather than the child’s needs. Parents are given a whole academic achievement picture when receiving the test scores.
“The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (No Child Left Behind) is a landmark in education reform designed to improve student achievement and change the culture of America's schools.” President George W Bush had good intentions of implementing various policies to improve our nation's education system but fell short. The No Child Left Behind Act caused havoc in schools nationwide. Fortunately, I believed the No Child Left Behind Act is supportive and effective for children and families to an extent. The No Child Left Behind Act placed a serious damper on schools because of the English language learners. Many educators failed to see the positive impact standardized test had with English language learners. “One positive impact the NCLB has had on