Review of No Child Left Behind

Essay by radakstUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, January 2007

download word file, 3 pages 5.0

The No Child left behind Act of 2001 was signed into law on January 8,2002 by President Bush. This represents the most significant change to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act since 1965 by asking schools to describe their success in terms of what each student accomplishes. The Act contains four of the presidents' basic education reform principles: stronger accountability for results, increased flexibility and local control, an emphasis on teaching methods that have been proven to work, and expanded options for parents.

An "accountable" education system means that states create their own standards for what a child should learn and know for all grades, they must test every students progress towards those standards, all states, school districts, and schools will be expected to make yearly progress towards meeting those state standards, school and district performance will be publicly reported, and if a particular school or district continually fails or doesn't meet standards they will be held accountable.

Many people feel that this is the most groundbreaking education reform our country has seen in many years.

There are four basic education reform principles in No Child Left Behind. The first is stronger accountability for results. Having strong academic standards for what every child should know and learn in reading, math, and science is the responsibility of the state. Schools will be held accountable and their will be consequences for districts and schools that fail to make progress. The second education reform principle is record flexibility for states and communities. The new laws created through NCLB give all 50 states and every local school district more freedom and say in determining how they want to spend the federal education money they receive every year. The third education reform principle is concentrating resources on proven education methods. This reform effort is aimed...