Foundations and Assessment of Education/Edition 1/Foundations Table of Contents/Chapter 6/6.5.2

No Child Left Behind: Cure or Curse?

Learning Objectives
After reading this article the reader should be able to:

â¢ Describe what the No Child Left Behind act is.

â¢ Remember key improvements NCLB has made in education since 1992.

â¢ Discuss main controversies about the No Child Left Behind act.

What is No Child Left Behind?
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is an American educational reform policy enacted in 2001 by former president George W. Bush. The main point of No Child Left Behind was to make schools accountable for their studentsâ achievements and failures in education. Schools would be rewarded for their studentsâ achievements by monetary grants and disciplined by the removal of grants, forceful removal of the current curriculum, teacher replacement and lastly the closure of the school.

Under No Child Left Behind states would have to ensure that all children will be literate by the third grade. Students who are not proficient in the English language will receive the instruction needed to make improvements. Under NCLB military schools and schools attended by Native Americans would be repaired to benefit the learning environment of their students. Ideally, under NCLB all students would graduate from high school with a diploma (Bush, 2001).

Why is NCLB a cure for educational reform?
In 1994 Congress reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESE). This act was supposed to make schools more accountable for their students. Less than ten years later the No Child Left Behind made numerous improvements in educational reform.

(Shaul, 2005)

â¢ Under the No Child Left Behind act if a school had not reached the adequate yearly progress measure (AYP) for their state they must offer the choice to transfer schools to parents of the students who attended the failing school. Failing schools would be required to provide transportation to their former students to their new schools until they are âno longer identified for choice.â (Shaul, 2005)

â¢ NCLB requires that all teachers be highly skilled in their areas by 2005-2006 (Shaul, 2005).

Why is NCLB a Curse?
â¢ No Child Left Behind has taken much longer than anticipated to enact. It was only in 2005 that all the statesâ plans for accountability were accepted by the government (Wong, 2008).

â¢ According to Lance Fusarelli, âFederal policy makers seem to blame educators for the achievement gap.â The added pressure to educators to not only teach well but to teach well enough for their students to pass has had a negative impact on some of the schools. Schools that are failing their adequate yearly progress measures do not attract teachers as much as a school that is passing their AYPs. This is due to the possibility of them either losing their job during a forced turn over or a forced school closure. Nonacademic courses such as art, music, dance or sports may be the first subjects to be cut from a budget suffering from the diminished funds due to their failing rank on their AYPs. If a teacher is offered a job in an nonacademic course or an elective-type course in a school that is failing they may not choose to take the position (Fusarelli, 2004).

â¢ If a school does not pass all their goals they are listed as a failing school. If a school does pass 17 of their 20 goals they are listed as a failing school on their annual progress report (Fusarelli, 2004).

â¢ Under No Child Left Behind if a school has failed their adequate yearly progress measure for three years consecutively they have to give parents the option to transfer their students to another school that is passing their AYPs. However, only a small percent actually do take this option to change schools when offered the option. The available spaces are usually taken by students who are doing well and passed their tests. The students who did not get the open spots for transfer are left behind to stay in the same school. The school may not have been forced to change their curriculum, staff or to close entirely. If the same students who failed the tests are being taught in the same manner they may fail the next yearly assessment tests. This situation will continually push the school further down the scale of their AYPs as the successful students keep leaving and the disadvantaged students are forced to stay (Fusarelli, 2007).

â¢ The lack of space at other schools who are passing their adequate yearly progress measures are limited and may force parents to keep their successful children from attending a school that is passing rather than failing. This is true in the example from the Los Angeles Unified School District where they were 160,000 seats short for students who qualified or wanted to switch to another school. Some school districts may have all their schools failing their AYPs forcing parents to stay in a school district that is failing all around (Fusarelli, 2007).

â¢ Some school districts didnât tell the parents of their students that they qualified to change school or receive tutoring until late in the school year when it was inconvenient to transfer (Fusarelli, 2007).

â¢ Some schools may refuse to accept students that transferred from a failing school. This is due to the fear that the school that was previously passing their adequate yearly process measures might actually fail their next one after accepting students. The government has not given any incentives to schools to accept students from a failing school (Fusarelli, 2007).

How can NCLB be fixed?
One of the theories that has been purposed to help the No Child Left Behind Act achieve its goals more effectively is to introduce a national curriculum with tests that are associated with the curriculum. This will however take away the states and school districts flexibility when it comes to curriculum (Fusarelli, 2004).

Another theory is to rezone school districts in such a way where a school will have equal amounts of low income students (who have been most likely to fail on the standardized tests) and high income students (who have been more successful on average). Rezoning on socioeconomic status will more than likely be proven constitutional (Sanders, 2008). According to Adam Sanders, âThis proposal appears to have more merit than merely mandating interdistrict transfers because urban school districts will not cease to exist, they will exist as a mixed school district.â

Multiple Choice Questions
1. If a school failed their first adequate yearly progress measure what would be the first option theyâd have to improve?

â¢ (A) Ask for their monetary funds to be re-established

â¢ (B) Close the school

â¢ (C) Establish a new curriculum

â¢ (D) Hire new teachers

2. What is a one of the theories purposed to help No Child Left Behind reach its full potential?

â¢ (A) Establish a national curriculum with standardized tests that match

â¢ (B) To build more schools so more children can attend a passing school

â¢ (C) To completely abolish the act

â¢ (D) Require all children to be homeschooled

3. As principle, what would be the best short-term option that your school could chose to help students who are at risk at failing your stateâs standardized tests?

â¢ (A) Give them detention so they have a mandatory time to study

â¢ (B) Offer them free tutoring services

â¢ (C) Prohibit them from participating in extracurricular activities

â¢ (D) Test them continually every week

4. Your school just passed their first adequate yearly progress measure in three years. What should you do to make sure you pass next year?

â¢ (A) Encourage your teachers to continue to teach their students as if they had never passed so theyâd be continually pushed educationally

â¢ (B) Give your students a free homework pass

â¢ (C) Give your teachers raises

â¢ (D) Offer a pizza party in the cafeteria

Answers: 1(C), 2(B), 3(A), 4(D).