No Child Left Behind Act - Essay Example

The No Child Left Behind Policy Reviewed Full Education can be said to be the best means to success whether individually or atlarge and this is the reason why the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002 is taking so much notice as government officials and other concerned citizens are looking into its strong and weak points considered for either revision or being carried out. In this regard, this paper will look into some of these underlying essential ideas as brought about by people who are in the position to affect the repealing or embracing of the law.

As every good law is removed or retained, this does not happen in a minute’s decision but undergoes a long process of deliberation and it is good to note that an important matter such as the NCLB is taking much thought and consideration to whatever congress will decide on. The strong and weak points of the law will be discussed in this paper in addition to the aforementioned information. When the NCLB was passed, a lot of politicians looked forward to its positive effects to the system of education in America considering all groups like the administrators, teachers, students and parents.

In 2006, there have been positive reports about the act and heads have been nodding in approval to the statistics presented. The long term Nation’s Report Card results in 2005 claims that achievements in Math and Reading of elementary students reached the highest level and that achievement gaps were minimal (Ed.gov). The Department of Education gave similar reports on the statistics submitted in favor of the act and these were applauded during President George W. Bush’s 2008 State of the Union Address.

He claimed that in 2007, fourth and eighth graders achieved the highest math scores on record, reading scores are on the rise and African-American and Hispanic students posted all-time highs (Bush). However, during the last election, this has become one of the main issues debated upon by politicians and were embraced as some of their propaganda in encouraging votes. Indeed a lot of good opinions have been shared and these placed the issue in the limelight with key players like Hillary Clinton advocating the repealing/ revision of the law.

She backed her views with the observation that statistics showing achievements of students are not really that accurate because they are in a sense limiting students. The achievement tests given to students by the Department of Education are controlled and do not really measure all that the students know instead, they limit what they learn, given the time to memorize and understand similar facts. Another effect of achievement tests noted by Clinton is that, students are encouraged just to follow instructions and not to think critically because the primary aim of the NCLB is to have high scores showing the law is working.

Similar thoughts have been embraced by President Barack Obama who worked on a blueprint for reform of the NCLB. In this reform, he suggested better assessments for the student’s skills to be determined if they indeed improved or not and to extend support to teachers, students and parents alike to foster the children’s education. Personally, I would agree with Clinton and Obama because while achievement tests are important to determine what the student’s learned, there is indeed the great probability that they will be set to pass the test for the sake of results but not really learning.

As I observed from my niece whom I recently took custody, her learning objective is to complete all her requirements designed to pass achievement tests. This puts so much pressure on her so that being a non-native speaker and not understanding all that is taught, she has the tendency of simply memorizing her lessons without actually understanding them. References Bush, George W. January 29, 2008. State of the Union ’08: Bush on Education. Youtube.com. retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=sl2pQWglv3k&feature=related Clinton, Hillary. December 25, 2007. Sen. Hillary Clinton on No Child Left Behind. Youtube.com. retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYcsGmP9new Obama, Barack. March, 2010. A Blueprint for Reform: The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Ed.gov. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/blueprint.pdf U.S. Department of Education. December, 2006. No Child Left Behind Act is Working. Ed.gov. retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/importance/nclbworking.html