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The role of federal, state and local governments in education
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In the U.S., the federal role in education is limited because of the Tenth Amendment, most education policy is decided at the state and local levels. A record number of schools are receiving failing grades, children are being bused to better performing school, and quality teachers are let go. The schools are struggling to meet the requirements even with interventions. The interventions put in place are not improving the students’ performance and preparing them for the future. In this paper, I will discuss the history of the federal government’s involvement in education, the need for a new law or revision, the president’s role, and opposition of the new bill.
History
In 1965, Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA),
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Bush, naming the bill No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (Elementary and Secondary Act). The NCLB was created behind a revolutionary idea that every child can learn. The nation agreed to no longer accept a public school system that educates only a portion of its children. NCLB required highly qualified teachers in the core subjects in every classroom; the use of proven, research-based instructional methods; and timely information and options for parents. Schools that underachieve are held accountable, providing their students with free tutoring or transfer to a better performing public school. To achieve its goals, NCLB works according to four common-sense principles: holding schools accountable for results; giving states and districts flexibility in how they spend federal money; using scientific research to guide classroom practice; and involving parents by giving them information and choices about their children’s education (No Child Left …show more content…
On January 12, 2015, Secretary Duncan called on Congress to create a law that would increase access to first-class preschool, encourage improvement, and enhance equality and access (Elementary and Secondary Act).
Mr. Duncan indicated that his goal was to make schools accountable, get rid of strict interventions and leave it up to the states to figure out how enhance growth. He worked with a bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers to rewrite the law (Dillon).
President’s Role
The Obama administration called for a broad revision of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, proposing to redesign contentious requirements that encourage instructors to teach to tests, narrow the curriculum, and label most of American schools as failing. President Obama repair the sprawling federal law, which affects each of the nation’s nearly 100,000 public schools. His plan retains some key features such as requirement for annual reading and math tests, while proposing
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001’s main purpose was to enhance the education system and hold schools accountable in its attempt to bring equality in the fight against poverty for poor and minority groups. Once this Act was signed into law the American public expected an overhaul of the education system with only good outcomes. The public assumed our children would be receiving the best education available and the economic issues that plagued schools would no longer be a problem. In the beginning of its implementation No Child Left Behind was expected to bring America up to standards with other nations, this was something that America has struggled to do for many years. Our children were now being put first according to Act and the public and many political figures were ecstatic over the possibilities.
The implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act applied a market approach to school reform as a way of improving the school system. This new law promised an era of high standards, testing, and accountability in
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.
In conclusion, the success and failure of federalism depends on the balance between the central government and federal units. Considering the case in United States, education is very important throughout the nation. However, due to the gap of achievement in students in each state, the federal government started the No Child Left Behind Program in 2002. The NCLB program grants the accountability for educational benchmark and provides many schools flexible educational program that work best in their localities. The NCLB program draws the 50 states to work on the achievement gaps of students in the United States. It helps reshape the role of state and local public administrators in the United States, which were not foreseen at the time of the setting up of the federal system.
...he surrounding area are required (and thus get more funding from local property taxes), by law and Education Code, to give a portion of their funding to school districts that are “poor” in order to boost the “poor” school districts performance; this idea of taking from the rich and giving to the poor is why it is dubbed the “Robin Hood” plan (Smith, Schools are Reassigned to Robin Hood, 2011). This bill was the first in a long series of proposed bills that was ruled as a constitutional solution for the 1989 Texas Supreme Court case Edgewood v. Kirby, but it is also the reason for the not only the current lawsuit filed by approximately 600 school districts (both wealthy and poor), but also the 2003 school funding lawsuit (Texas School Finance History, n.d.). It has been ruled unconstitional several times throughout its history, yet it still remains in practice today.
...making class size smaller. If the school itself cannot afford to educate its students, then the government needs to provide the school with the money to do so. They’re America’s children too.
The United States Department of Education (D.O.E.) has been officially around since 1971 when President Jimmy Carter signed into law the creation of the D.O.E. as a Cabinet level agency. Two years later, when President Ronald Reagan took office, he planned on abolishing the D.O.E. right away because he believed the federal government was intruding too much and that the state and local governments should control the education (Genovese 164). However, in 1983 the D.O.E. published A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Education Reform, which critiqued America’s public education system. President Reagan was alarmed at this report and decided to retain the D.O.E. because he saw it as a weakness if our education system was producing citizens not able to contribute positively to our economy (Genovese 165). Since that year, most Republican presidential candidates have considered abolishing the D.O.E. until recently.
The American public school system faces an education crisis. According to Benjamin Barber, American children barely surpass the lowest standards set for education, especially in literacy, throughout the county’s history. Barber supports the existence of this crisis in his essay “America Skips School”, but argues against a solution to remedy the numerous problems facing the system. Although he acknowledges no solution, Barber suggests a smarter flow of financial resources will address many of the issues, however, he fails to acknowledge the distribution of this money. Barber’s suggestion for smarter financial resources for schools can be effectively implemented through a structured committee focused solely on the distribution of money.
Nation policy has been at the forefront of educational reform for decades and lacks effective initiatives to move the education system forward. The U.S Education Reform and National Security report outlines the national initiatives that have taken place to reform the education system. From Goals 2000, to No Child Left Behind (NCLB), to Race To The Top, and Finally Common Core these initiatives have fallen flat for the most part. These policies are riddled with worldviews and common values, also apparent are some key philosophies of education that have identified over time. Although policies are established to benefit the education system, the implementation of some these initiatives has been nothing but headaches at the state and local levels,
In 2002, President George W. Bush passed the “No Child Left Behind Act” which tied in schools’ public funding to standardized tests and enforced the tests in elementary and high schools every year by state education departments. This law also began to put more emphasize on standardized tests which has diminished our level of education and the law “made standardized test scores the primary measure of school quality” (Diane Ravitch 28). Bush hoped this law motivated more students to do well on these exams and teachers to help them prepare better, but it ended up hurting many schools in the process. These exams like the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) should not play such a prominent role in schooling and the government should not make tests the main focal point.
Even in this time of struggle, with billions of dollars going towards various war efforts overseas, America still has managed to keep taxpayer investments in education higher than that of funds for national defense (U.S Department of Education). In the 2004-05 school year, there was an estimated amount of 536 billion dollars set aside from taxpayer investment for education purposes. Without a doubt, education is a priority for the American government, and if these funds are used in the correct way, there is no reason why each and every kid in the United States shouldn’t be getting a quality education. However, the organization of the financial system is flawed, funds are not handled proportionately at the state level; rather, this system favors the wealthier districts and hands more funds to them while the less wealthier districts are handed a smaller pool of funds. This really affects America’s quality of education, which also reflects upon how America fairs on the world stage when it comes to competition in education with other countries. The disorganization of funds in the United States can be seen in the Hoover City School district, which has bought every student in that district an iPad for use in school. The first problem with this is that this school district does not even have a viable bus system that can transport students to and from school. Secondly, not even 20 miles from this district lies the Birmingham City School district where a little more than half the students are graduating, compared to Hoover City Schools where a bit more than 90 percent of the students are graduating. If anything, the state should be working towards improving educational standards in lower-income communities rather than debating on the log...
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.
Over time, the passing of knowledge became more organized and societies developed what is known today as the school. In the school, people of all ages are able to learn from the experiences of others. Today, America’s system has been neglected to a point that students of other nations are testing higher academically than that of American students (Duncan, 2010). Because of this, many government officials, school reformers, and concerned citizens are faced with the challenge of finding a solution. However daunting and intimidating this may be, we must remember that this is not the first time that America has faced a need for change in the school. History is full of such events calling for changes to be made; unfortunately many of these changes were never fully implemented into the school system. Therefore, by studying the past we can build upon and complete the changes started. Unleashing the full potential of the American public school, giving each student a chance to be their greatest, regardless of who they are, and/or where they came from.
Since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), legislators have been holding teachers accountable for the success of their students based upon reading and math scores. Last month President Obama signed The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 ending the controversial NCLB era. Instead of having a national system judge teachers and schools, states are permitted to develop their own methods for judging school quality. However, states are still mandated to test students annually in math and reading in grades three through eight and once in high school and to publicly report the scores according to race, income, ethnicity, disability and whether students are English-language learners (Layton, 2015). Regardless of whether the federal
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.