Paola Dalmonech
ELN-120 Foundations of American Education
Prof.Fan
March 25, 2009
Short Writing Assignment
No Child Left Behind
The “No Child Left Behind Act” is a federal law of the United States that was
originally proposed by President George W. Bush in 2001. He officially signed it into
law on January 8, 2002. Bush’s plan on “No Child Left Behind” hopes to reform the
modern educational system in America. In other words, its key objective is to close the
educational deficit between private and public schooling. To reach this goal, the “No
Child Left Behind Act” aims to increase accountability for students’ performance, to
expand parental options and information, a focus on teacher qualifications, fiscal
flexibility, and an emphasis on using strategies and programs in order to make the level
of teaching higher and more profitable. The main idea behind this act is promoting
educational success for all children without any sort of differentiation. It is very
important that everyone, no matter where you are coming from or what your race is, can
have the same opportunity of education. In this way, the law promises to ensure the same
educational program for all children, whether they belong to low-income or high-income
families. Because education is an equity issue, students with disabilities, those who are
signed by poverty, regardless of race, should have the same opportunities to het a high
quality education. Thus, the No Child Left Behind Act’s primary goal is for all students
to reach the proficient level of academic achievement on state assessments by the end of
the 2013-14 school year. As mentioned above, this federal law wants to give the
opportunity for closing the gap separating various groups of students, in which groups
perhaps can grow forms of racial discriminations.
Since 1965, the congressional architects of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act (ESEA) were trying to reauthorize a system in which disadvantaged children could
receive a better education. They clearly saw that “those children traditionally underserved
by the U.S. public schools” should definitely have the same fortune and privilege of
education that the majority of students would have (Popham 148). Therefore, the No
Child Left Behind Act could be defined as a continuation of those rationales that emerged
in the past, and that brought light to the aspiration of those federal lawmakers. Indeed, the
No Child Left Behind Act is the most significant federal education legislation since the
1960s. It includes regulations in specific key areas. For example, it requires annual
proficiency testing in reading and math for grades 3-8 and forces states to publish results
of school-level testing. This is a mandatory school procedure called “adequate yearly
progress” (AYP). The goal is having all students reach specific level of proficiency by
the 2013-14 school year. The challenge for the academic assessments preparation lies
both in the teacher’s and the students’ performance because it requires teachers to use a
series of strategies that will help all students perform at an appropriate level. On the other
hand, students need to focus and concentrate quite well in order them to be facilitated in
approaching the state assessment. For instance, New York State School Boards
Association follows the No Child Left Behind assessment requirements because it
requires students to be assessed in mathematics, English, language arts and science at the
end of the fourth and eighth grades, and in High School. However, it has made a change
because by the 2005-2006 school year the State developed and implemented assessments
in Mathematics, English and even Science for grades 3, 5, 6 and 7. This regulation for the
assessments tests doesn’t exempt any public school students from participating in these
tests. The only difference we have regards students with disabilities, who may have a
different assessment test graded by the committee on special education.
Among the readings I collected for my research on the No Child Left Behind Act, I
found interesting and particularly important the purpose of educational testing which
plays a significant role in this reform. Stating what W. James Popham says, “The reason
that educators test children is to make an inference about the knowledge or skills that a
child possesses” (Popham 49). Teachers give tests in order to see how much a student is
learning throughout the whole school year. I believe this is a very valid method in order
for the teachers to see the progress of a student’s skills and knowledge. According to
President Bush, who gave a speech on September 26, 2007, we see that New York City
gained a lot from the No Child Left Behind Act. “Scores are improving, in some
instances hitting all-time highs. Children across the country are learning”. The Nation
hopes to see results in education, in return for the money investment utilized once the
Congress reauthorized this federal law. However, likewise in every field there are people
who side for and others who are against one particular subject. In this case, the supporters
of the No Child Left Behind Act believe that the law is working, in terms of its positive
effects. They argue that the act is improving our nation’s public schools. On the other
hand, the members of the con camps believe that there should be actuated some
alterations in order for the law to benefit its changes and see a meaningful improvement
in our institutions. These people who are not supporting completely the No Child Left
Behind Act want to see kids in the U.S. schools to be better taught and make a sufficient
progress each year. Clearly, the No Child Left Behind adversaries are not the policy
makers led by President Bush and prominent officials of his administration. Another
regulation that made the No Child Left Behind Act work was the competency.
Elementary and Secondary school teachers are required to be “highly qualified”. In order
to be so, they must have a bachelor’s degree, a full state certification and licensure as
defined by the state, and eventually “demonstrated competency as defined by the state in
each core academic subject he or she teaches”. These are the three requirements that
define a teacher eligible to start his/her profession. In other words, the No Child Left
Behind Act stresses the ideology of increasing the quality of education by requiring
schools to improve their performance and we saw previously what the procedures were.
For example, nowadays all students on the same grade level receive the same test, thus
forcing schools to provide the same curriculum to all students and not permitting schools
to place minority, poor or disabled students in lower-lever academic tracks. Undoubtedly,
there will be surely state-to-state differences in the way that state officials choose to
implement this federal law largely in its own way. Despite this fact, No Child Left
Behind is one of the defining pieces of domestic legislation of our time. It commits the
nation to ensuring that eventually all of the U.S. schools’ children are given an
opportunity to pursue the American dream. As a matter of fact, the improvement in New
York City’s public schools reminds us of “what we can achieve when we set big goals
and work hard to meet them”, according to Bush’s speech held on September 2007.
Overall, I feel that the expectations for making the No Child Left Behind Act work
efficiently are remarkable, in terms of benefiting children and giving them the
opportunity to succeed in life. Education is a very important topic, which results to be
necessary in order to have a descent and fortunate life-style. For this reason, everyone
ought to have the same equal opportunity to study and achieve an educational training
since we have the sources available all across the country.