HOW “THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT” IS AFFECTING

EDUCATIONJeff Griffin

What is the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)?

The no child left behind act is a piece of federal legislation that was signed in 2002 by President George Bush.

The NCLB mandates all public schools to raise education standards which is evaluated through the use of tests.

Each grade has specific education standards that must be met according to the NCLB.

Another goal of the NCLB is to narrow the education gap between ethnic groups. Currently Hispanic and African Americans shows a significant drop off in learning compared to Caucasian Americans.

Below is a graph of Racial differences for fourth and eighth grade in Reading and Mathematics

•According to test results, NCLB has not closed the gap between students with different ethnic backgrounds. •However, from 2002 and 2004 The NCLB did report to close the gap between black and white students in Michigan by four percentage points. •Although there is a significant gap between students of different ethnicity, the NCLB is making strides to improve this wide gap.

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Background Information

The NCLB is important because it raises education standards and rewards schools who are successful at doing so.

The 2009 budget for the NCLB is 24.5 billion dollars and has increased by 41% since 2001.

The goal is to increase reading comprehension and math for the grade level of the particular student.

Background Information

DOMINE, V.E. (2009)

Failure to follow federal regulations can result in a loss of federal and state level funding and can even result in the closing of the school.

The goal behind the NCLB is to raise education standards by setting higher goals and improving education.

Is NCLB Improving Education Standards?

According to the NAEP in 2005 (the nations report card), more 9 years olds showed improvement in reading in the last year then they did in the last 28 years combined.

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Improvements in Michigan

Seventy-three percent of seventh-graders statewide met or exceeded state standards in reading, up from 61 percent in 2004.

Fourth-graders meeting or exceeding the standards rose three percentage points to 82 percent

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NCLB and Teachers

Because of the NCLB teachers are no required to be “highly qualified” in more than one subject area.

Upper elementary teachers are required to teach all subjects at a higher level of skill.

Yearly testing will be able to show a individual report for each teacher and how its students do on tests.

NCLB and Teachers

In order to be a “highly qualified” teachers you must meet the following requirements. Hold at least a Bachelors Degree. Has a full state teacher certification Has demonstrated competence in each core

academic subject in which the teacher instructs.

Conclusion

When the No Child Left Behind Act originated in 2001 its goal was to increase standards in education.

New Results and tests show that the NCLB is working and improving education across America.

Although our country is making improvements in education, there is still a lot of improvement that needs to be made. A good example would be the education gap between different ethnic backgrounds.

References

http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/statefactsheets/michigan.pdf

http://www.ed.gov/nclb/overview/importance/nclbworking.html

http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/nclb.teachers.admins.htm