Pros And Cons Of No Child Left Behind Act

o Child Left Behind be repealed?

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is an Act of Congress that is the government’s main aid program for students that have disadvantages. Its intention is to give equal opportunities to all youths for a good education and future. It was passed during George W. Bush’s presidency, in January 8th, 2002. With this law, the Americans schools are forced to pressure their students to progressively improve their test scores if they do not wish to lose the aid that the Federal Government gives. This act has fallen in much criticism due to many reasons, such as its’ questionable use of power by Congress and the President, and obligatory standardized testing, which has been seen as being unfair and also misleading. The

Just because an 8th grader might be said to be proficient at Mathematics in his state, it doesn’t mean that he/she will also be able to prove it in a test from a different state. Each and every state has a different standard, and as such, will demand so much from their students. The act’s highly flexible provisions have allowed states to make their tests “ordinary”, while others are actually trying to raise the bar for their alumni. To further affect these already inaccurate scores, non-English speakers are subjected to take the same exact tests as their peers. The proponents of No Child Left Behind thought that this would lead to the ESL program to improve itself in order to make the students learn English at a faster rate. Although they were in fact right that the ESL program brought many reforms to help the students, it had negative effects. Before, the students were helped to be able to communicate with others and make their ideas be understood. Now, due to the heavily analytical style of the tests, the program is now focusing more on reading comprehension, instead of trying to make the students’ proficiency in communicating be improved. Their education is jeopardized, and the average state scores are affected because the ESL students will obviously come short to the expectations. This can lead to students from a less strenuous state to believe that they might be more gifted than those in a more taxing state. Misinterpretation of these kind of results could result in the wrong schools and teachers being punished and put even under more scrutiny to see if they are pulling down the test