Pros And Cons Of The No Child Left Behind Act

If you were to change something about the education system in the U.S, what would you change? How would you critique the quality of education? Education historian Diane Ravitch answers these questions in her excerpt that was published in 2014, “The Essentials of a Good Education.” In her text Ravitch argues that the education system is flawed and that the vision of a good education is unfair and unequal. Ravitch supports her claim by providing examples of the negative effects of the educational system and using historical context. The author’s purpose is to wake up the policymakers of the educational system in order to raise the standard of the quality of education each child receives regardless of income. Ravitch writes to an audience that are invested in the construction of the educational system and the parents along with other interested readers. Ravitch establishes a formal and professional tone for her audience. In this essay I will be focusing on a particular element Ravitch

Standardized tests may be used for a wide variety of educational purposes. For example, they may be used to determine a young child’s readiness for kindergarten, identify students who need special-education services or specialized academic support, place students in different academic programs or course levels, or award diplomas and other educational certificates.

Michal is a boy born in Florida who has some special needs. He was born with a brain stem, but not a whole brain. He loves to hear and listen to people talk to him, yet he is morosely incapable of sight, speech, or even understand basic information. He was forced to take an alternate version of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. This year he will be forced to take this test again. He is not alone. This New York times article from February 13, 2014 goes on to give an example of another case. This time it is the story of Andrea Rediske, a Florida parent of a child who is slowly dying from a life burdened by brain damage and cerebral palsy. The state tried to force this child, Ethan, to take this test. In the meantime while Andrea was fighting the school system, Ethan Rediske passed away. It doesn’t have to be this way. Our children aren’t all dying of terrible diseases, but these standardized testing is killing our brothers and sisters creativity and passion for school instead.

In 2015, a poll was taken from over 1500 National Education Association members, and more than 70 percent of those polled believed that standardized testing is not useful and helpful to students in developing any skills (Walker). Standardized tests have been taken since the early 1900s in many age groups. A standardized test is any sort of test that has both the same questions and the same answers to all people it is given to. They are usually given over wide areas, such as states or even whole countries, and can be used to see what knowledge a general population has gained from their educations. Some major standardized tests are the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT). These tests are taken by people that are

Standard testing is a very controversial and important subject because it deals with the progression of the American education system. The practice of these assessments has been highly scrutinized not only for the way it has changed the format of classrooms, but also for its accuracy, pressure, and abundance. In 2001, standardized testing became federally mandated through the No Child Left Behind Act by former president George Bush Jr. According to research from the Council of the Great City Schools, students have been taking “an average of 113 tests from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade” (K. Hefling). These numbers have increased to the point where parents have opted for their children to not attend standardized exams. In New York State,

Bill Clinton was 46 years old when he went into office, making him the youngest President since John F. Kennedy. He was also the second U.S. President to be impeached; however, not just bad things happened during his time in office. Clinton was President from 1993 to 2001, and he accomplished many things for the United States during that time. For example, he was able to create more jobs and drop the unemployment rate significantly. He also played close attention to issues in the education system. By the end of his Presidency, Clinton was able to make education a priority, which to me was his greatest success. But, just like anyone, Clinton had his high times and low times. Other than his huge sex scandal that lost his popularity with

Diane Ravitch, a historian of education, once said that, “sometimes the most brilliant and intelligent students do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.” These tests have been a part of American education since the mid-1800s(Is the Use), but now, many people are starting to realize that standardized tests are not as convenient as they thought they were. In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act required all schools in the United States to test students in grades two through twelve annually in reading, math, and science(Is the Use). But since then, the U.S. has dropped from 18th in the world in mathematics to 36th, with a similar change in science as well. On the other hand,

Standardized testing has not improved education in America. Standardized tests have been issued in schools all across the nation for years now. Some people like them and some people don’t. They do not help the student learn more information than they would without the tests. The U.S. has dropped from 18th highest scores in schools in the world to be in the 30’s on almost all of the subjects on the test. The tests narrow down the curriculum to focus on the subjects that are on the test, forgetting about the other subjects. Standardized tests cannot measure all that schools teach like how to be a problem solver. Standardized tests have not improved America’s education system.

It would be nice to imagine that everyone begins at the start line together. Unfortunately, a majority of people start at a disadvantage. In most public elementary schools, there are students in every grade level that are reading behind grade level. Consequently, these same students will encounter tests throughout their whole academic career. Starting in elementary school, a literacy gap will begin to emerge among students. As this gap grows, standardized testing will remain or increase to a point where some students are so far behind that it becomes intimidating to be in an academic setting. While many factors can contribute to the literacy gap, there are companies and corporations that continue to profit off of distributing

All around the United States, there are people who probably never got the chance to go to college, not because they didn’t want to or weren’t motivated enough, but instead they couldn’t afford to go. In his book, The World Is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman talks about globalization, which means that the world is being flattened. What this means is countries are now able to compete with each other. One solution that would help people in a flattening world is free community college for two years. A majority of people have given up on the idea of college simply because it’s too expensive. What if community college was free for two years? Now people wouldn’t have an excuse to not go to college. But will students be as motivated and not slack off

The No Child Left Behind Act is a United States Act of Congress that is a rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Brought before congress in 2001 and passed into law in 2002, this act was set into place to close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is “left behind” academically. No child left behind is a standardized education reform based on the idea that setting high standards and establishing goals that can be measured, will improve individual outcomes in education by having educational facilities held accountable for testing scores.

Today well over 50% of the states in America have a “No Pass, No Drive” law, and these states are experiencing great success in terms of education. A “No Pass, No Drive” law, or NPND, is the official name for the law that requires students to pass with a ‘C’ average before driving. There is no better way to provide a strong reasoning behind the support of NPND legislation than to observe the effects in states that are currently happening. One of the biggest arguments against NPND is that it gives students on the verge of dropping out one more reason to go through with the decision. However, this argument is very flawed because NPND actually does the exact opposite. One study in Florida shows that “1,000 of the 4200 dropouts” who returned to

Education reform is legislation to improve the quality of education in the United States. Once, grades were the most important achievement for students. However, politicians and the public were concerned that our standardized test scores were not as good as those of other countries. Therefore, state and national governments started making laws to make school more challenging and to test kids more. One of those laws was “No Child Left Behind”. Recently, the Common Core State Standards were developed and kids were going to be tested more than ever. However, all of this education reform has been a failure because our testing scores have not improved, the testing makes children suffer, and it doesn’t improve how teachers teach.

Are you tired of the way we do testing? Well, I am. Some people think that we should keep the way we do testing. While everybody else thinks that we should change the way we test. I think we should change the way of testing because it causes stress to lots people. The way we test takes up time that could be used to learn something new.

In many public schools, music education programs are being terminated, due to budget cuts and governmental program reforms; while some believe that the arts are secondary to courses such as math and science, it has been proven that musical education helps students to improve skills such as project management, team building, effective time management, leadership, cooperation and collaboration. Due to the fact that the benefits reaped from music education overwhelm any negatives associated with it, music education programs should be kept in public schools.