National Education Reform

Education is always a hot topic at all levels of government, from worldwide organizations like UNESCO to national governments and from state to local governments. Education reform is such a big issue because it affects all the others. A proper education gives people the tools to not only improve their own lives, but also the lives of other people. The quality of education and the skill development a person gets even from preschool can determine success later in life. Former president Barack Obama once said, “In today’s economy, a high-quality education is a prerequisite for success”. We are always trying to improve the quality of education for our youth. Although education reform and legislation is well-meaning and has benefits, there are

Johnson as a part of his war on poverty campaign. This laid the foundation for modern legislation that we are more familiar with like No Child Left Behind (NCLB), passed in 2001 by George W. Bush, and its new successor the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed in 2015 by Barack Obama (“Why Every Student Succeeds Act Still Leaves Most Vulnerable Students Behind”). D All of these laws had the same relative goal: to improve the quality of education for every student in the U.S. by attempting to provide equal access to education, establishing high standards, improving teacher/school quality and accountability and shortening the achievement gaps between students. There is a lot of squabbling over this issue today in the national political scene because even though these are good goals, they are hard to achieve. E Schools, teachers and students- all feel the harmful side effects of education

Much of the national education legislation, like NCLB and ESSA, enforce the unfair practice of punishing low scoring schools. (“Why Every Student Succeeds Act”). F There are many ways schools are unfairly punished for low scores- less funding, staff cuts due to less funding, or even closures. Due to low scores on standardized tests, Chicago closed 49 elementary schools. Of the schools closed, 90% of them had an African American majority and 60% had a high percentage of special needs students. This is alarming because these students are more statistically at risk. (“Why Every Student Succeeds Act) This is especially unfair because according to Sean F. Reardon, economic success is closely related to educational success. Therefore, children who suffer from their schools being closed due to their low test scores probably lack many of the resources that would help them make up for that loss. This is especially frustrating considering the possibility that standardized testing may not even be