Death By Diane Ravich Analysis

The NCLB was structured to place the responsibility of our children on the shoulders of each state individually. In addition, it is also beneficial to parents and students who are living in impoverished communities with little to no resources available resulting in low performing test scores. The NCLB also states that local educational agencies now have federal education funding in their disposal.

Teachers have to focus mainly on the basic meaning of what the students need to learn instead of teaching the deeper and worldly application of the material being taught. In addition, every year each grade is required to make higher scores on the standardized tests than the year before. There is also the fact that the NCLB program holds children back. Those who are gifted or high performing students are not given the attention that they need, because all of the funding that the schools are given from the program is being used on programs to get all of the students to the minimum skill requirement, which is set by the NCLB. Also NCLB only focuses on math skills, English language skills, and eventually a science skill. This only elevates the scores for two fundamental skills that students need in today’s world. In focusing only on these few skills students lose the benefits of a broader education. Some schools in times of budget cuts have had to cut some of their classes so that they can focus on the subject areas dictated by the NCLB. Plus, some schools have done surveys and found out that high school students are lacking knowledge in the subjects of history, civics, and literature. Another point that people disagree with is the fact that the Act is requiring 100% of students, including disadvantaged and those with special needs, within a school to reach the same state standards in reading and math by

According to Klein (2015), NCLB was the result of a coordinated effort between civil rights and business groups, both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, and the Bush Administration, which tried to advance American competitiveness and close the achievement gap between poor and minority children and their more privileged counterparts. Subsequent to 2002, NCLB has made a huge impact on teaching, learning, and school improvement. It has also become progressively debatable with teachers and the general public.

The NCLB Act has become the largest intervention by the federal government. This act promises to improve student learning and to close the achievement gap between the white students and students of color. The law is aimed at having standardized test to measure student performance and quality of teacher. The Standardized exams are fully focused on reading and mathematics. This law characterizes an unequalled extension of the federal role into the realm of local educational accountability. High school graduation rates are also a requirement as an indicator of performance at secondary level. In low performing schools they get punished by receiving less funds and students have the choice to move to high performing school. The quality of our

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind law in 2002, standardized testing has been at the center of attention in the educational system. Several schools and teachers have been forced to drill children on the information they will be tested on. Teachers are forced to demonstrate other important topics in order to teach test material. Similar to majority of tests provided in the school system, standardized test have both pros and cons. Generally speaking, standardized testing is a great way to determine a baseline for a child. As Miller (2016) indicated, tests have a multitude of benefits, which include student enthusiasm, peer learning, self-improvement and retention, transfer of learning, student self-assessment, and teacher instructional guidance. Teachers are able to use the data from the standardized tests to build an entire academic plan around the results. Additionally, students and parents are able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each child in order to determine the next steps needed to help bridge any gaps within their academic studies.

Standardized testing has become a multi-million dollar business that has shown no substantial progress on the public school system across the nation. Our students and schools are being robbed of expressing creativity and critical thinking skills while major corporations are gaining more and more financial stability. Since the implementation of the harsh testing guidelines, it has forced

“There is something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds an inner-city child only eight years old "accountable" for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the high officials of our government accountable for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years before,” quote Jonathan Kozol. As this quote apptly states many children are often robbed of simple childhood pleasures by standardized testing. These strenuous tests should be cut back to the absolute minimum. Standardized tests should not be required because they provide unnecessary stress, are often inaccurate because of computer and human error, and some students, particularly minorities, are at a clear disadvantage.

No child left behind does nothing but dishearten the students who are proving to be ahead of the average student from wanting to improve. While the struggling students are simply carried from one grade to the next. The No Child Left Behind Act is great in theory but is too heavily reliant on standardized tests and percentages and not enough about what the students actually learn. Being a survivor of NCLB I have had firsthand experience with this topic and from an above average students point of view it really deterred me from wanting to push myself further and eventually lead to me falling into the average category as my high school career came to an end. Teachers and students treat education with the idea of “just

     Many educators find the purpose of the NCLB Act to be very confusing and disingenuous. According to Monty Neill, who works for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, an organization which evaluates tests and exams for their impartiality, “NCLB is a fundamentally punitive law that uses flawed standardized tests to label schools as failures and punish them with counterproductive sanctions” (Neill, 1). Teachers will be of no use to educate their students according to the curriculum, if the only focus that both the teachers and students have is only to pass the imperative standardized test, just so their school district can acquire more

In what follows I first provide a history and explanation of the NCLB act. As well as the thinking behind this piece of legislation. Then, I show how the NCLB’s rules and standardized testing are destructive to teaching. Finally, I argue how the act is leading to the overall downfall of our educational system.

Another major problem of NCLB is the people who create the tests. State senators across the country make different tests and decide what should be in the learning curriculum. To become a state senator you do not need a degree, and the senators that do have degrees are typically degrees of business or law. Why did senators make the tests and not teachers? Many of the state senators writing the tests do not have the educational background needed to write tests. And because every state senate makes a different test for every state, students who move out of state are supposed to be able to pass a test that they have not learned about.

The No Child Left Behind Act should tremendously be re-examined and amended because the focus on the standardized tests decrease the quality of other subjects not on the tests, the tests are not an efficient tool to make certain that a student is receiving an excellent education and the tests create unnecessary stress for the students, teachers and administrators. The purpose of No Child Left Behind is to provide every student with the opportunity to receive a top-grade education. This is a great proposal to strive towards but, legislation plans on achieving this proposal by making schools responsible for their students’ proficiency and to measure their proficiency with the use of standardized tests. After the students take the

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was established to create research-based teaching methods, stronger accountability for schools and teachers, increased flexibility and local control over federal funds, and greater schooling options for parents. Even with all of its positive and great intentions there are also millions of opponents and proponents of NCLB. There are many changes that the NCLB can improve on and there are some that it should strap all together. The current status of NCLB today is a failing system. The schools that scores high on the standardized test get the funding, while the school that makes lower scores gets little or no funding is the biggest problem for most opponents of NCLB. The NCLB does not give students enough time to develop and learn on subject that they may struggle with. The NCLB assessment tools lack the needed guidelines to help students from different learning abilities. Funding is distributed to school with the higher test scores and the schools with test scores under the set standard gets the opportunity to lower their standards to receive standard scores. When the standards are lowered it takes away needed resources from the students and holds back the students with a higher level of learning.

State standards along with the weight of demands of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have left testing companies with limited Psychometricians and high demands deadlines on testing and scoring tests. In my perspective, I do feel that testing companies are in immense pressure to search for test experts who prefer to work elsewhere. What really conquered my thinking were the costs to create a test. Toch (2006) states “As a result, it costs anywhere from $ 300 to $1000 to develop a simple multiple –choice question, the least expensive type of test item.” (p.8-9). I was astonished at the costs and did not know that such expense in making tests existed. I do appreciate how the tests are created in a meticulous way. First these tests have to align to state standards and even though the NCLB has challenged the testing industry, but overall it has to keep up with student current learning. At least the NCLB helps students progress in their educational learning because it is based on state standards. Toch (2006) states “NCLB’s test-based accountability system has given local educators powerful incentives to help students whom public education has long neglected.”(p.5) this means that minorities were given their fair share of quality education they haven’t received before. At least teachers are now faced with consequences with how they teach rated by student performance on standardized tests. According to Toch (2006) “The law’s requirement that states align their tests to challenging state

The NCLB mindset of standardized testing equating success and funding, has not gone away. Tests and grades are still shoved down our throats, with threats of failure lurking in the shadows.