No Child Left Behind Act Pros And Cons

The problem dates back to 2002 when the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was implemented. Barbara Mantel talks about the act in her article, “No Child Left Behind.” The act’s primary focus was to regulate schools. According to Mantel (2005), even after the NCLB Act was implemented thousands of schools did not meet the progress targets. It shows that the act did not work as well as planned. The expectations that were set by the act were seen as unrealistic and led to failure (Mantel, 2005). Mantel (2005) mentions how critics of the act view it by citing Robert Linn, a testing expert saying “Essentially, all schools will fail to meet the unrealistic goal of 100 percent proficient or above, and No Child Left Behind will have turned into No School

According to Kenneth Jost (2001) in “Testing in Schools,” standardized tests that were already in place before the NCLB Act did not provide any good qualities. He provides evidence in the form of statistics to support his argument. He says that based on the percent of students passing a reading proficiency test in fourth grade in 2000, forty two percent of the students would have been held back if the rule was set in place then (Jost, 2001, p. 324). Jost’s statements support the argument that standardized testing is more hurtful than helpful. Before the NCLB Act was talked about, standardized testing was a controversial topic that people were trying to find alternatives for. Thomas A. Rakes and Lana McWilliam address some possible alternatives in their article “Bridging the Gap: Two Alternatives to Standardized Testing.” Rakes and McWilliams (1978), talk about other ways to measure a student’s learning progress than standardized tests such as an open book reading assignment that requires the student to search for an answer rather than having one already memorized. The opposition to the NCLB Act from the beginning was a foreshadow of the problems that the act would

To take an educator’s thoughts into account, an interview with an elementary school teacher, Mary Baise is helpful. In an interview, kindergarten teacher, Mary Baise states that she thinks standardized testing is helpful in some ways, although she agrees that standardized testing is focused on too much and there is not enough focus on learning life skills in school (M. Baise, personal communication, March 09, 2018). Baise also does acknowledge the other side of the argument and mentions that standardized testing is not necessarily bad, it is just that the focus on it is the downfall (personal communication, March 09, 2018). She is one of many school teachers that think the focus on testing is too much. Baise mentioned the advantages of critical thinking by saying that critical thinking helps with problem solving which is something that is helpful to have the skills for in the real world (M. Baise, personal communication, March 09, 2018). This is helpful and relevant insight into the situation, because it involves someone who is currently employed in the education