No Child Left Behind: Elementary and Secondary Education Act - Essay Example

NCLB REPORT TO REPRESENTATIVE COLLEN HANABUSA, HAWAII, ON THE BENEFITS OF NCLB To Colleen Hanabusa, Introduction The 2001 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of Congress is a educational reform program that uses the philosophy of improving individual educational outcomes by imposing given exceptional standards of benchmark performance. The NCBA Act of Congress emphasizes on setting measurable goals to district schools. It is crucial to highlight that the Act does not seek to establish a national performance standards, but delegates such a duty to the districts’ stakeholders. In this sense, NCLB seeks to expand federal stake in education through annual academic progress programs, annual testing, funding programs, and ongoing verification of teacher qualifications. In a general sense, NCLB engages every party to the education in playing a comprehensive role towards learning. Benefits Convergent efforts NCLB will bestow significant benefits to the education system. An inherent feature of the whole program lies in linking every stakeholder in the education system towards a common goal of improving education. Significant reports claim that education standards have been falling in the USA. In spite of exceptional enrollment rates, students have registered low performance even in key areas such as Mathematics and English. Solving such problems requires measurable standards that teachers, students, and the state strive to achieve. The NCLB program, hence, unite all the stakeholders in designing unique policies that work towards a convergent direction. In this sense, it recognizes that achieving a comprehensive education requires the unique efforts of every party. Most notably, the state had previously played a distant role in education as it delegated such duties to specialists. In the NCLB development, the government realizes that education should be in tune with national goals and national progress. Besides, the state recognizes the performance in schools determines the nature of the future society. Autonomy to states The NCLB program recognizes that states and districts possess unique problems and needs in education. In spite of the overall needs of education, the NCLB program recognizes that certain factors differentiate the state of education of one state from the other. For instance, education and income is a critical issue because it determines the nature of education that a student receives. In this sense, a state will have to examine the income groups in its communities and ask for proportionate funding levels. In addition, each state will examine the differentials in terms of the suburban schools and the inner city schools. In the end, it becomes essential to design tests that cater for all the communities in a state. This explains why the states will have the freedom to design their assessment programs and tests annually. Monitoring and accountability It is essential to highlight that Adequate Yearly Progress system is the hallmark of the NCLB. This is because it monitors the progress of public schools in terms of standardized tests. The AYP guides each school towards a certain level of standard performance by comparing its previous performance to present expectations of performance. In turn, a school has the mandate in constantly upgrading it performance towards excellence. AYP mandates each state to design a timeline for monitoring its aggregate progress. This schedule stipulates that 12 years after the 2001 base year, students should have exceeded the performance of each state’s standard (US department of education, 2013). In the program, education agencies in each state accord opinions on how the timeline should develop. The AYP system operates in four phases. In case a school performs poorly for the second consecutive year, such a school has to articulate a two-year development plan for the subjects that the school does not handle well. Within the two-year period, state education agencies label an affected school as in need of improvement. If a school performs poorly in the third consecutive year, an affected school has the mandate of offering supplemental education to students deemed of underperforming. If a school misses its required performance standards in the fourth consecutive year, the education label such a school as in need of corrective action. Corrective action, in this frame, regards introduction of a fresh curriculum, complete replacement of staff, and other overhauling programs. On the other hand, the fifth year unimpressive results warrants actions such as closing a school, contracting private companies to run an affected school, and requesting the state education office to harness a direct responsibility over a given school. The AYP is a comprehensive system that caters for all groups. For instance, the NCLB law requires each state to design measurable objectives that considers the diversity of student population in terms of factors such as economic advantage, English proficiency, and disabilities. In addition, AYP relies on state assessments and their defined standards of quality performance by students and proficiency in teachers. The specific schools, however, assess the AYP objectives at their own levels. It is crucial to highlight that AYP recognizes NCLB categorization of students. This means that performance of students is limitedly assessed at the aggregate level since studies possess different periodic abilities. In this perspective, AYP disintegrates its expected level of performance to unique groups. This strategy helps towards comprehensive analyses of a school. For instance, a school might possess excellent top performers, but have an ever-underperforming group of weak students. Recommendations for school help will depend on the categories’ performance. In the end, a school does not necessarily receive victimization for poor aggregate performance. NCLB, through the AYP, has significant impact on accountability. To begin with, it imposes high standards of expected performance to schools. In this sense, school fraternities have to coalesce their efforts towards a common goal of improving learning. Measurable performance is one of the most objective and merit-based system of assessing an individual student’s performance in relation to previous performance and the performance of other students. In a large sense, the NCLB law focuses on the individual student and eliminates the anxiety of competition that characterize traditional learning. This is instrumental for focusing on minute details that characterize an individual student’s performance. In the end, the NCLB program has the goal of ensuring that every student has elementary and exceptional understanding of basic subjects such as Mathematics and English. Since the legislation requires that teachers must register given levels of performance, teachers possess the huge responsibility of delivering these results. The AYP administers yearly targets that keep teachers on course towards long-term view of performance. In case required standards are not met, schools face distinct consequences that enhance accountability in subsequent periods. Teachers also possess the mandate of helping poor students towards better performance since assessments occur in terms of categories of abilities. The NCLB program requires yearly reports that detail the performance of students according to subsets of subjects. In this view, the school administration has to steer teachers towards comprehensive performance. In close relation to these points, the NCLB helps state link academic content standards with student outcomes. In this perspective, the curriculum developers ensure that the content taught in class is in tandem with expectations of performance and be in tune with the needs of students. Accountability also improves through the requirement that mandates schools to provide detailed reports about academic performance. These reports explain given schools’ performance according to set AYP standards. Besides, schools will have to inform parents about when their children receive tutoring from teachers who do not professional requirements. This creates a basis for schools to cooperate and involve parents in schools’ progress. This occurs through the employment of assessment data to form decisions about curriculum, business practices, and provision of learning. For instance, some states have launched a program of tethering teachers’ salaries on schools’ performance. High qualification of teachers NCLB has a legislative system that requires all teachers to have set standards of qualifications. This gives birth to the phrase, highly qualified teachers. To begin with, all teachers face the requirement of passing the state licensure exam towards attaining the qualification to teaching in a particular state. In the end, all involved teachers must be comprehensively certified by the state. In addition, teachers face a continuous task of demonstrating their knowledge and expertise through test scores and given credentials. In this view, teachers have to demonstrate their competence through the performance of their students. NCLB legislation stipulates that minority and low-income students be taught by teachers with the same or higher rates of qualification than teachers handling non low-income non-minority students. Additionally, this legislation accords parents the entitlement to know the qualification standards of their teachers. In essence, a parent has the right to discern whether a child’s teacher has state’s licensure and other required qualifications. In addition, a parent has to know whether a given teacher is operating on an emergency license and whether such a teacher either is an undergraduate major or holds a graduate degree. Parents share the right to know if their children are receiving tutoring services from paraprofessionals. Furthermore, schools have the obligation to inform parents if a non highly-qualified teacher is handling children for a period of more than four weeks. School choices NCLB expresses the unrelenting commitment to ensure students acquire the best education at all costs. Such an endeavor disregards loyalty to a school in spite of poor performance. In turn, the programs accords freedom for students to switch to better performing schools in case of a school’s repeated poor performance. Students who transfer have the right to receive extended and free tutoring. It is additionally important to recognize that each school has the exceptional entitlement to face minimum achievement standards that place value on resources and the performance history of a school. Value on research Schools face the responsibility of using certified learning materials towards tutoring students. This Act requires schools to solely rely on scientific based research for teaching and general academic programs. Scientific research is recognizable as rigorous programs that apply objective standards and systematic procedures in acquiring knowledge relevant to curriculum requirements. Scientifically based knowledge is replicable and real-time in fine-tuning education towards contemporary requirements. Besides, scientific research is crucial towards objectively describing the developing educational situation of public schools. The findings of such research help in articulating decisions that directly respond to contemporary outlook of educations. In this view, there is limited space for making assumptions about the needs of students in modern learning. Emphasis on data helps various stakeholders make decisions that regard their stake in education. Specific programs The NCLB program has specific sections that cater to contemporary needs in education. For instance, the technology state grants accord funds to district schools in order to support technology in elementary learning and education in secondary schools. This thrives on the recognition that technology is core to innovation and modern learning. In addition, the Title 1 has funding towards English proficiency. Such funding is essential towards helping children with mild English proficiency. In this sense, minority students and recently immigrated students acquire the chance to attain the basic proficiency that is indispensable in receiving instructions and acquiring comprehensive learning. Besides, the program ensures that there is funding for community centers towards providing extended and after-school learning. This thrives on the recognition that poor students may require extra tutoring. Conclusion In summary, the NCLB steers a program that help the government merge its national goals with educational programs. Emphasis on elementary learning ensures that students acquire competence and proficiency in economically oriented subjects such as Mathematics and English. These subjects determine the abilities to acquire instruction and tackle basic problems in give careers. In essence, the NCLB program instills accountability as stakeholders work towards measurable standards of performance. The AYP program sets defined standards of performance that each school should achieve. It is essential to highlight that the program supports high standards of qualification for teachers. In this view, the parents continually become aware of the level of professionalism that their children experience in various schools. In addition, the program designs a system whereby every stakeholder contributes uniquely towards raising educational standards in the country. More essentially, the government becomes increasingly involved in the educational system of the country. Strategic directing of funding will help steer key areas in education such as technology and proficiency in English. Reference US department of education (2013). No Child Left Behind: Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml. Read More