Free Essays on No Child Left Behind

On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act (Public Law 107-110). Because the U.S. Constitution does not designate a public education role for the federal government, the responsibility of K – 12 education is in the hands of each individual state. The federal government, who has an interest in the quality of the nation’s public schools, has passed legislature to provide assistance to the states and schools. The No Child Left Behind Act builds on the foundation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), first passed in 1965, whose primary purpose was to improve educational opportunity for economically disadvantaged students. In researching the topic of NCLB I have found many differing opinions, both positive and negative, regarding the act as well as it’s implications on our nation as a whole. In order to fully explore this topic we must first attempt to understand the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act. Once we have reviewed this we can then explore its affects thus far, long term affects, opposing views and how we can make this law work for us as both educators and parents. Before we can discuss the No Child Left Behind Act in great detail we must first understand the act which it is a revision of. The ESEA or Elementary and Secondary Education Act was first passed in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson. The ESEA was President Johnson’s first bill in his War on Poverty program. In 1966 an amendment to the ESEA added Title VI. This amendment added grants for â€Å"handicapped† children but in 1970 broke off from the ESEA. It is now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Act. Throughout the history of the ESEA the federal government expanded the act to include bilingual education, minority education, education in correctional facilities, safe and drug free schools, arts education, library and media services, neglected and delinquent youth, as... Free Essays on No Child Left Behind Free Essays on No Child Left Behind No Child Left Behind: A Foolish Race Into the Past† by David Marshak is clearly showing the view against this policy. Basically No Child Left Behind is a policy that allows all students to get a high quality education. This article shows how this may be a horrible idea to be carried out. There are a lot of problems that can come from the enforcement of this policy on the schools. Kids right now aren’t really getting the proper bond that should exist between a student and his/her teacher. So this policy also has connections and ties to newer and better ways for students to learn and interact differently with their teachers. Problem being that this would cause a huge shift the budget and would take a lot of planning and time to convert to the new system which would wind up being worse for the children than the original situation. I like to believe that I am a supporter of equal opportunity for students of all races, ages, social and economical statuses. After reading this article however it doesn’t seem like too great of an idea. All the time, manpower and budget money that would be spent on this project would be overwhelming for the districts to have to take on. The post-industrial idea doesn’t sound soothing to the ear either. Who is to say that smaller schools and environments are better? I believe that if the kids are in less populated schools they are missing the opportunity of diversity, or the chance to get away from certain kids they don’t like or may pick on them. The best thing about largely populated public schools is, that there really is a social group for everybody whether those kids find each other or not. In conclusion, it’s going to come down to the risks of making the change or not. Hopefully if they do decide to push forward with it the proper precautions will be taken to ensure the economic and social stability of the community and schools.... Free Essays on No Child Left Behind No Child Left Behind On January 8, 2002 President George Bush signed the â€Å"No Child Left Behind† Act (No 2002). This law was made to help the country’s educational system. The law revolutionizes the old system. A few of the most popular and biggest changes are: Improving academic achievement of the disadvantaged, higher quality teachers, making all schools up to date on technology, giving schools more flexibility and accountability, and giving a choice to students of their school (No 2002). Because the law is so vast, this paper will explore the flexibility and accountability changes and how they allow the students and parents to choice their schools. One of the new laws gives states more flexibility with what they spend their allotted federal money on in their schools. For instance, one district might need a technology upgrade while another needs teacher improvement. Before this law, schools had to go through mounds of paper work and red tape to get the different funding. The president believes that each area knows the improvement needed and this will make it easier to get (No 2002). Not only do the schools get flexibility in their finances but also in their standards. In the fall of 2002, each state had its own standards for their schools. The standards are based on math and reading but will include science by the 2007-08 school year. The standards will also be on achievement of subgroups and teacher qualification (Spar 2003). They will be measured by their progress each year. The idea of these standards is to give schools 12 years to make every student who graduates have a mastery of basic skills (No 2002). Even though the schools are given all this flexibility, they will also be held accountable for all their choices. Each year the state will produce a report card on the progress in their schools. The report card will be based on a test that students take at every school. These tests will be given to every student in... Free Essays on No Child Left Behind On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act (Public Law 107-110). Because the U.S. Constitution does not designate a public education role for the federal government, the responsibility of K – 12 education is in the hands of each individual state. The federal government, who has an interest in the quality of the nation’s public schools, has passed legislature to provide assistance to the states and schools. The No Child Left Behind Act builds on the foundation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), first passed in 1965, whose primary purpose was to improve educational opportunity for economically disadvantaged students. In researching the topic of NCLB I have found many differing opinions, both positive and negative, regarding the act as well as it’s implications on our nation as a whole. In order to fully explore this topic we must first attempt to understand the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act. Once we have reviewed this we can then explore its affects thus far, long term affects, opposing views and how we can make this law work for us as both educators and parents. Before we can discuss the No Child Left Behind Act in great detail we must first understand the act which it is a revision of. The ESEA or Elementary and Secondary Education Act was first passed in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson. The ESEA was President Johnson’s first bill in his War on Poverty program. In 1966 an amendment to the ESEA added Title VI. This amendment added grants for â€Å"handicapped† children but in 1970 broke off from the ESEA. It is now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Act. Throughout the history of the ESEA the federal government expanded the act to include bilingual education, minority education, education in correctional facilities, safe and drug free schools, arts education, library and media services, neglected and delinquent youth, as...