The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

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.

The No Child Left Behind act emerged as a result of a massive increase in the costs of schools, while failing to show an improvement in their students performances. (Paterson 32) Since these standardized test have been in effect teachers have been judged off them. The problem is that

The No child left behind act has been a big issues ever since its establishment in 2009 by President George Bush. There has been cry by some parents for the law to be repeal because they feel it is creating more problem for the educational system. However, critical analysis of the situation of the students grades by comparing the period before and after the establishment of No child left behind will show that the law has brought tremendous improvement in our education and need to stay.

The No Child Left Behind Act is designed to raise the achievement levels of subgroups of students such as African Americans, Latinos, low-income students, and special education students to a state-determined level of proficiency. However, since its introduction in 2001, it has received a lot of criticism. Some argue the ulterior motives of the Act while others commend its innovation and timing. With the Bush administration coming to an end, it is difficult to determine what will happen to the Act or how effective it will continue to be. Hopefully future lawmakers will be able to evaluate the pros and cons of the Act and the impact it will have on our youth.

No child left behind does nothing but dishearten the students who are proving to be ahead of the average student from wanting to improve. While the struggling students are simply carried from one grade to the next. The No Child Left Behind Act is great in theory but is too heavily reliant on standardized tests and percentages and not enough about what the students actually learn. Being a survivor of NCLB I have had firsthand experience with this topic and from an above average students point of view it really deterred me from wanting to push myself further and eventually lead to me falling into the average category as my high school career came to an end. Teachers and students treat education with the idea of “just

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.

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.

Control of the public education system has been left to the State for most of the country’s history, it was not until the 1950’s that the federal government played a role in categorical programs, but the national government refrained from involvement in academics until the 90’s. Three days after taking up his position in office, George Bush announced his plan for the No Child Left Behind act (NCLB) which was a consolidated reform of the 1962 Elementary and Secondary Education Act or ESEA (McGuinn, p. 1). ESEA focused on providing resources for the underprivileged students, whereas the NCLB act focuses on all students in public schools. On January 8, 2002, the No Child Left Behind act was enacted. The

The No Child Left Behind Act was implemented to ensure that students in a secondary education public school could attaint the goals set out by the state, have a safe learning environment, and teachers whom are prepared and educated enough to teach all students. The goal of the “No Child Left Behind Act” was to guarantee the success of all students despite the socioeconomic status, backgrounds, even disabilities. It was enacted to “close any gaps” between each individual student despite their many differences; whether those difference be physical, mental, or emotional all students must attain the same scores and reach 100% proficiency.

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.

Democrats and Republicans should challenge the No Child Left Behind Act. Even though the No Child Left Behind Act has good intentions to help children, there are many hazardous strategies involved. The No Child Left Behind Act may do more harm than good. The strategies in the No Child Left Behind Act do not contain research evidence to support the law. The No Child Left Behind Act guidelines that were published in December, 2002 by the United States Department of Education, insist that parents of students in poorly performing schools be allowed to transfer them to a different school, even if it causes overcrowding somewhere else.

President George W. Bush signed No Child Left Behind into law on January 8, 2002, thus re-authorizing six more years of Johnson’s historic Elementary and Secondary Education Act initiative. The No Child Left Behind Act aims to reform education by improving academic standards, with goals such as: holding states more accountable for results, creating greater flexibility at the state and local levels, expanding options and choice for parents, emphasizing teacher quality and effective teaching methods, and confirming states ' progress (Fritzberg 2004, p. 11). It expanded the

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. No Child Left Behind has left many to criticize the outcomes of the Act itself. Questions have risen concerning the effectiveness of NCLB, as well as the implications to America’s youth.

In my opinion, perspectives on teaching should be changing over time to mesh with teaching strategies that are used in the classroom today. With this being said, it is important for teachers to be aware of the historical, social and political foundations of education. Since education has changed drastically over time, there are a lot more restrictions and teachers need to be sure and pay attention to understand today’s education system. I personally believe that children are also impacted by these changes and it too affects their feelings towards school and their teachers. By personalizing different teaching styles to fit my student’s needs, I will commit to their education to help them achieve whatever they set their mind to.

The No Child Left Behind Act should tremendously be re-examined and amended because the focus on the standardized tests decrease the quality of other subjects not on the tests, the tests are not an efficient tool to make certain that a student is receiving an excellent education and the tests create unnecessary stress for the students, teachers and administrators. The purpose of No Child Left Behind is to provide every student with the opportunity to receive a top-grade education. This is a great proposal to strive towards but, legislation plans on achieving this proposal by making schools responsible for their students’ proficiency and to measure their proficiency with the use of standardized tests. After the students take the