No Child Left Behind 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. The Act requires all states to develop a form of standardized testing of basic academic skills, focused on math and reading. …show more content…
Combined with the 2000’s recession crises, many high schools and elementary schools have decreased resources or even cut classes in subject areas that are not part of No Child Left Behind 's accountability standards. Since 2007, almost 71% of schools have reduced instruction time in subjects such as art and music to provide more funding to Math and English (http://www.ed.gov/esea). In some schools, even though art and music remain available, students who are not on level with basic skills are sent to remedial reading or math classes rather the other optional …show more content…
In exchange for the strong accountability, No Child Left Behind gives states more flexibility in the use of their federal funding. As a result, principals and administrators have more time to devote to students’ needs and spend less time dealing with government forms. They have more freedom to be innovative and give resources as they are needed; thereby giving parents a greater opportunity to decide what schools need which programs. There has been a lot of controversy about No Child Left Behind. Teachers, schools, educational organizations and even some states have come forward and said that No Child Left Behind to be ineffective, not working, and overall flawed for many different reasons. Reform of the law is moving forward and debates about how to make No Child Left Behind more effective were a constant topic of discussion by schools, states and government officials.