Critical #4

No Child Left Behind Act NCLB and the effects is has on the U.S education system

By Jennifer Pitt

In America we are constantly trying to improve the education system. Over the decades, many laws have been created to do just this. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is one example of new legislation designed to enhance the learning of our students. It was signed into law by President Bush in January of 2002. Since then NCLB has had people both praise it and criticizes it.

NCLB has been called “the most significant and controversial change in federal education policy” in that past 40 years (Kellough, 2007, p. 17). That is because it reaches almost every aspect of education. It requires that schools do a number of things which include having annual testing that show progress, highly qualified teachers in core content areas, dialogue between schools and families, and many other specifications. In order to receive federal funding schools have to comply with all the specifications and even more importantly make yearly progress. When the law was signed in 2002 some schools gave up the federal funding, believing that the program required too much.

The Act recognizes that students from different groups (racial, social, etc) will have different experiences. This is because schools in higher-income locations tend to have more money for educational expenses. This results in students who perform better on standardized tests. NCLB expect schools to “ensure that all students achieve standards and perform at grade level in reading, mathematics, and science regardless of their race, socioeconomic status, native language, and disability” (Johnson, 2008, p. 45). It holds schools accountable for this and there are penalties for schools who do not achieve this.

Yet while the goal of this act is very noble, a better education system that has its roots in equal education, the delivery of it is much harder. For example, schools in Westchester NY receive money from the taxes people pay on their land. Schools in New York City do not have this luxury, which means that even with federal money there is still a potentially huge gap in funding. While schools in suburban areas receive new textbooks, can pay for those highly qualified teachers, and can afford special programs, schools in the urban setting are struggling to buy a classroom set of textbooks and send their teachers out for further training. This of course affects the kind of education the students receive.

Other complaints about NCLB are that standardized tests are not the best way to measure a student’s performance and that you cannot hold the school fully accountable because of outside factors. I believe that while the bill did make efforts to improve education, it over looked a few aspects of education. People who had a hand in the bill may have never set foot in a classroom before, let alone fully understand what it is like to be a teacher in big cities, farm towns, and suburban areas all at one time. The bill has been detrimental in that it puts pressure on our students, some of them would rather drop out than take a test a second, third or fourth time. I believe that reforms are needed to address the many different issues brought into light by this bill.

Reference:

Johnson, J. (2008) Foundations of American education. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.

Kellough, R. D. & Kellough, N. G. (2007). Secondary school teaching: A guide to methods and resources (3^rd ed). Upper Saddle River: Merrill Prentices Hall