Historical Impact
No Child Left Behind
Jessica Ferguson
No Child Left Behind
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, was signed into law by President George W. Bush in January of 2002 (Funding, 2015). This part of the legislation brought about major changes and reform to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that was created on April 11, 1965 as part of The War on Poverty by the President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The No Child Left Behind Act is on amendment to the already established Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). ESEA, from the beginning, was a civil rights law that was brought about by President Johnson, who believed that our first major national educational goal should be full educational rights and opportunity.
ESEA and the Great Society program made a clear and distinct role for the federal government’s role in grades K-12 educational policy. The new policies from ESEA contributed 1 billion dollars a year through a statutory section called Title 1, to school districts to help cover the expenses of teaching underprivileged and disadvantaged students. The law has been changed several times since its creation to expand the government’s role in education, one of such changes is the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (Funding, 2015).
The No Child Left Behind Act law was signed into place when congress and President George W. Bush became concerned that America’s education and academia was a failing system that could no longer compete on an international level. This new NCLB law increased the amount of control the federal government had to hold schools that taught grades K-12 responsible for the educational progress of all the students. The law put a special emphasis on ensuring that the states had their K-12 school system teachers put special focus and attention on certain students to help their performance and bring their grade point average up. Special education students, poor students, minorities, and students learning the English language receive special focus to bring their educational level up to that of their peers so that they may achieve the same test scores (Klein, 2017). Some states chose not to adopt the new requirements the federal government mandated at the risk of not receiving the following years Title 1 funding. The new NCLB law says that all states participating under the NCLB guidelines must subject their students to testing in the areas of reading and math starting with grades 3-8 and as well as high school. The test results have to be submitted to the state, showing results for the student population as a whole and for certain groups such as students who live in a low-income family, ethnic minority, special education, and English language learners (Klein, 2017).
Schools participating in the NCLB act had to show the state that their students’ test scores were improving to a proficient level by the school year 2013-2014, who in turn reported their scores to the federal government. Even though each state got to pick what proficiency their schools should be at and which test the schools got to use, no state was able to get a full 100% of their students to the educational level that was set by the 2015 deadline put in place by the federal government. The federal government kept the schools on track by putting a system in place known as “adequate yearly progress” or AYP. If the school falls short of the AYP yearly goal, there are certain sanctions put in place that become more serious each year the goal is not met. Some of the sanctions are as stated: If the school does not meet AYP two years in a row, the school has to offer students the ability to transfer to a better school in the district. Three years of not meeting AYP, the school must offer tutoring for free. If the school continues to fail to meet the AYP goals, more serious sanctions can be used such as shutting the school down, employing a turnaround strategy, or the state can make the school a charter school. Schools also have to set a certain amount of their Title 1 money aside for programs such as school choice and tutoring. The law also states that teachers must be adequately trained and qualified with at least a bachelor’s degree in the subject field for which they are teaching. All new teachers hired with federal Title 1 money, must graduate from an accredited college that is certified by the state. Highly qualified teachers must be evenly distributed among the school district so that poverty stricken schools have the same concentration as highly qualified teachers as the wealthier schools (Klein, 2017).
Pros and Cons
Some of the positive outcomes that have come from NCLB are major improvements to the educational system. Such as, teachers that are better qualified to do their jobs (Lee). Before the implementation of NCLB the qualifications of teachers were half of the standards in place today. Test scores have improved as well because teachers are putting more emphasis on teaching the curriculum that is going to be on the test. More money is being poured into the K-12 school systems as well, which leads to better learning materials and up to date technology (E., 2006). It also allows more money to pay for teachers that are better trained and highly certified. Another great aspect of the implementation of NCLB is that the gap between the scores of the privileged and the underprivileged has been drastically reduced (C., 2015). There has also been an increase in the amount of high school graduates, which leads to a future with a more educated society, creating citizens that will be more productive members of the community.
Some of the noted short comings of the NCLB is that more schools than before are getting lower scores that say the school needs improvement. This puts a higher strain on teachers and forces them to teach strictly the material that will be on the standardized test, “teach the test” (Funding, 2015). This leaves little time for other things such as the arts. The test focus too heavily on math and reading. This means that the funding is sometimes completely cut to certain classes. Teachers also no longer have the ability to teach things in the classroom that they would like to because of the fear of falling behind on the material that the local school board requires them to teach (E., 2006).
All Things Must Come to an End
The short comings of the NCLB were not a complete loss. However, no law is meant to be permanent and needs to be updated every so often to keep up with the changing times and curriculum. So, due to some of the short comings of the NCLB act, it was replaced with Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015 by the United States President Barack Obama. Most parts of the NCLB act were repealed and few were kept by the administration. ESSA is the newest law passed by Congress, some provisions of ESSA carried over from the NCLB such as: standardized testing. Like the NCLB, ESSA is a reauthorization of the 1965 ESEA which was the start of the government expanded role in education for the greater good and the war on poverty even though some would still not agree (Lee).
My Philosophy
The No Child Left Behind Act impacts my philosophy of education in several ways. I have never been a “good test taker” but have always stressed and done poorly. Through NCLB, testing became one of the major focuses, and in my personal, this is truly a disadvantage to some students. In an article that I read it stated: researchers that demonstrated that experienced teachers are not necessarily expert (Hattie, 2002). NCLB expects well educated teachers in the classroom, which to me is so important. We need teachers who know what to do and how to do it teaching our future. However, “teaching the test” hurts some of the best lessons by cutting out some of the fun in learning. Teachers have to stay on such a strict schedule, we are not able to spend more time on things that may help our children come to a deeper level of understanding with the material. These mental plans typically included a general sequence of lesson components and content, although they did not include details such as timing, or pacing the exact number of examples and problems. These aspects of instruction were determined during the class session on the basis of what the student had questions about and what their responses were. It also said in the article that they achieved a balance between content-centered and student-centered instruction. I love this because I would love to work like this. I cannot stand having to stick strictly to my lesson plans. I also do not love to “teach the test” which is basically what schools have been doing since NCLB went into effect.
References
C. (2015, July 24). 14 Crucial Pros and Cons of the No Child Left Behind Act. Retrieved September 17, 2017, from http://connectusfund.org/14-crucial-pros-and-cons-of-the-no-child-left-behind-act
E. (2006, November). Pros and cons of NCLB: What the research says. Retrieved September 17, 2017, from https://www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/pros-and-cons-of-nclb-standardized-testing-research/
Flaherty, C. (2015, February 20). Educators share how No Child Left Behind has affected their classroom. Retrieved September 17, 2017, from http://educationvotes.nea.org/2015/02/20/educators-share-how-no-child-left-behind-has-affected-their-classroom/
Funding, H. R. (2015, April 23). No Child Left Behind Act Pros and Cons. Retrieved September 17, 2017, from http://healthresearchfunding.org/child-left-behind-act-pros-cons/
Klein, A. (2015, April 10). No Child Left Behind Overview: Definitions, Requirements, Criticisms, and More. Retrieved September 17, 2017, from http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/no-child-left-behind-overview-definition-summary.html?cmp=cpc-goog-ew-dynamic%2Bads&ccid=dynamic%2Bads&ccag=nclb%2Bsummary%2Bdynamic&cckw=&cccv=dynamic%2Bad&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2oqb6Lab1gIVxbjACh3qiwzaEAAYAiAAEgJJg_D_BwE
Hattie, J.A C. (2002). What are the attributes of excellent teachers? In Teachers make a
difference: What is the research evidence? (pp. 3-26). Wellington: New Zealand
Council for Educational Research.
Lee, A. M. (n.d.). No Child Left Behind (NCLB): What You Need to Know. Retrieved September 17, 2017, from https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/your-childs-rights/basics-about-childs-rights/no-child-left-behind-nclb-what-you-need-to-know?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInofol7ab1gIVirbACh3YjQbaEAAYASAAEgI5HvD_BwE