Grounds: In 2002, the Bush Administration set forward a plan to improve school education. They were determined to fix the achievement gap between white students and students of color, while also aiming to support those who have been historically disadvantaged. So, they implemented the NCLB act. Today this law affects Elementary and Secondary Education by enforcing regulations that require all states to provide schools with a curriculum that will improve students understanding of math, reading, and science. To assess their knowledge and exposure to these subjects by teachers, the federal government requires that all students take an assessment test as a way to inform the government of their progress. According to David Hursh, in his article titled Exacerbating inequality: the failed promise of the NCLB Act, last updated September 2007, he stated that “The NCLB requires that 95% of students in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school be assessed through standardized tests aligned with challenging academic standards in math, reading, and science”. http://www.wou.edu/~girodm/foundations/Hursh.pdf By 2014, all students in all states are expected to be proficient in all subjects regardless of their mental, physical, and cultural impairments.
The NCLB law expects that all students are the same with regards to their ability to comprehend information and their skills to take a test. They assume that students are able to be competent in areas such as math, science, and reading. However, not everyone is good at math and some children may be stronger in one area than the other. The “one size fits all” mindset does not fix the achievement gap, or support the historically disadvantaged. On the www.edweek.org website, last updated July 2011,...
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...e, my 6th grade teacher taught us how to learn fractions by using pancakes! Withouth that I would have never have understood the concept.
Conclusion
Transitional Expression: To summarize
The NCLB act is doing nothing for our school education in the United states. It affects children in grades k-6th in a negativity by assuming they all learn the same, which unfortuantly puts teachers in a predicament where they must teach these students regardless of their learning rate. This limits student education and does not allow them to learn in the classroom. Rather they learn how to learn strategically. In the book, Bell Curve: Intellegence and Class Structure, written by Charles Murray, the word intelligence describes something real and that it varies from person to person is as universal and ancient as any understanding about the state of a being human.
This required each state to develop a set of standards that each child would need to know in math and reading. The NCLB also required almost all of the students to be tested annually throughout elementary and middle school grades (Webb, Metha, Jordan 2013). The act also strived that all students would test at a proficient level by 2014. The impact of this decision was that the government would be more involved than ever before in how a school taught, what the school taught, and the requirements of outcomes. The downside impact of this was that states changed the proficiency levels over the years and there has been inconsistent data given when reported. In a report with control groups it is shown that there were changes before and after implementation of the NCLB (Ladd 2010). With that information one could conclude that the act was successful and should be further pursued along with
The policy “No Child Left Behind (NCLB)” is a policy where Federal legislation has mandated that children be tested, and where there is compliance with standards. Simply means, that all children must meet standards. The standards are defined by the states, and all children will be subject to testing, starting from as early as third grade. The students will be tested annually, in order to ensure that they are getting the type of education that they are entitled to, as determined by their performance on standardized tests.
Anatole France said, “An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don’t.” Through the No Child Left Behind program students are being tested in a manner that does not accurately measure learning. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB or The Act) Act was proposed in 2001, an addition to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, to assist students who have a disadvantage or are a minority. Through this Act students were required to take standardized tests. One main reason of implementing the standardized testing as a part of NCLB was to raise schools AYP, adequate yearly progress; this measures a schools progress in reaching certain standards set by the Federal Government. The Federal Government should eradicate the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 because it is creating substantial problems, limiting learning, and has proven to be ineffective.
..., it is not the best tool to measure the subjective nature of various learning standards. (Moore). To add on to that standardized test started be more frequently used. On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and secondary Education Act. The new law will require that students in grades 3-8 take state wide standardized tests every year in math and reading. (Crone). When teaching to the test there is a rise in test results. No matter how we measure changes in test scores, there is a tendency in the early years after a new high-stakes test is introduced for scores to rise rapidly. (Crone). Standardized test can be academically beneficial in many different ways, but it also can have its downturns. This leaves the teachers responsible of the student’s results on standardized test.
... of the main goals of NCLB is to increase teacher, school, and state accountability for students’ scores. (http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/index.html)ASK ABOUT LONG QUOTATION FOR THIS SECTION. What this means is that each state must spell out how they plan to lessen the achievement gap and make sure that all of their students, regardless of their status or abilities, reach proficiency. In addition, the state is required to send out report cards to parents and communities regarding state and school progress. If a particular school isn’t moving in the right direction and isn’t making progress, it must provide additional services, for example tutoring, and take corrective actions to make the school better. If after all of this the school still is not reaching AYP after five years, changes will be made at the foundation of the school, changing the way it is run.
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) deals with student achievement standards by holding schools accountable for the achievement of their students (Implementation 11). The NCLBA uses standardized tests to chart the success of students. If students are not meeting standards, the school is required to offer tutoring, which is funded by the state with Title I, the education mandate passed in which granted all public schools access to federal grants, money (No Subject 7). The Act itself is not the problem; the problem is that the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standard which is a big part of the NCLBA is not being met. The AYP standard is not being met because schools are not changing their methods quickly enough. It was said in the NCLBA that schools nationwide were to have 100% proficiency of the AYP standard within 12 years (Implementation 9). Since the passing of the NCLBA in 2001, most public schools, nationwide have not improved at all.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is currently the educational policy in the United States. Prior to NCLB the educational policies in effect were “A Nation at Risk, in 1987 America 2000, and a few years later with Goals 2000” (Eisner, 2001, p.21). No Child Left Behind is a test based accountability system used in schools to measure their performance holding the districts, administrators and teachers liable and accountable for the outcomes. Supovitz (2009) States that No Child Left Behind was a major reform initiative intended to bring about widespread improvements in student performance and reduce inequities between ethnic groups and other traditionally under-served populations like economically disadvantaged students, students from major racial
...hanges made to improves the quality of education children will continue to suffer. The NCLB act was created with good intentions, but I questions the commitment to ensure all students receive an opportunity to achieve. Once those who have the authority to make the necessary changes to the program commit to improving the education system, the test scores of students who are in schools who support the program should begin to see improvement. This should not be an option, whether or not to fix a system that has the ability to provide children across America the chance to succeed. The most important task at hand, is to make sure that we are moving forward in education so that we are able to compete with those who are thriving education wise, such as children from abroad. Children deserve a fair chance at a bright future and education is the key to that success.
The NCLB Act is not effective because of the current situation of state governments calling certain schools “failures” because of their low exam scores, thereby reducing funding to the school. If the federal government is funding the NCLB Act for after school programs, it would seem that it was funding a non-effective program. I have broken down the consequences as follows.
One of the major misuses is that tests are required in lower elementary schools. Tests are carried out at a younger and younger age for certain purposes without concerning children’s joy of learning. According to washingtonpost, Similar to many other states, Arizona starts to test students at second grade, which is lower than what the NCLB legislation required. Worse yet, it is easy for people to find districts that hold test on young children at first grade, even at kindergarten. The misuse of test is brutal to young children. Also, in his study, Jacobson asserts that 36 states now hold standard of what knowledge children should acquire before they attend kindergartens (as cited in Johnson, 2008, p.22-1,2). In other
Regardless of socioeconomic status, every child should have a right to a quality education. In 2002, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), which was intended to improve the academic achievement of all students. NCLB was President George W. Bush 's education reform bill, which was intended to help schools improve teacher and principal quality. However, throughout the nation, the less fortunate children are still deprived of a decent education. To the federal government, the right to education is not recognized as a fundamental right. State governments have been in control of the right to education, they are involved with choosing the curriculum and teaching methods. In addition, the state is responsible for public education
For years, the No Child Left Behind program and parents have gone head to head. Some parents believe that their children are not ready to advance, while the NCLB believes the students are ready to progress. The law does not care if the students does not understand the curriculum, just as long the child is meeting deadlines and passing the states standardized tests. This type of learning system only causes stress for teachers, students, and can be very unreliable.
The No Child Left Behind Act was set into place with the goal to improve student performance in school, and close the achievement gap between students; as Stecher, Vernez, and Steinburg state, “When congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), it established an ambitious goal for the nation’s states, districts, and schools: All children will be proficient in reading and mathematics by the 2013-2014 school year” (1). While the No Child Left Behind Act was implemented with good intentions, the act itself is one of the main reasons the United States is falling behind in educational rankings. One of the most common complaints of parents surrounding the No Child Left Behind Act is the weakest link factor: the weakest student sets the pace in the classroom. The weakest student...
As Rodney Paige, former Secretary of Education, said, “We have an educational emergency in the United States of America” (Hursh, 2007). The American ideal of egalitarianism essentially states that individuals should have an equal opportunity to pursue their dreams, and an important part of being able to achieve this is attaining a quality education. Students of differing racial, cultural, socioeconomic, and ability levels should all have the same opportunities in receiving a high-quality education. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is seeking to change this. The NCLB is the current authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (Houston, 2007), which was passed during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. Every five years the ESEA is renewed. It is currently due for renewal in 2014.
Problems of education connect to funding, teacher quality and the status of the teaching profession, student academic performance and standardized testing, racial imbalances, and equal educational opportunity. The lack of parental involvement seems to be a problem for education also. Parental involvement in their child's education makes them feel good about themselves. They usually have higher grades; higher test scores on standardized tests, classroom assessments and at arrive at school all the time. It is important to have quality teachers that care about the students and that encourage parents on how important it is to be involved with their child’s education. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law took effect in 2002; it has had a broad impact on U.S. public school classrooms.