NCLB
A Great Idea Gone Astray
No one who cares about the future of our nation can dispute that education is important. And no one should dispute the fact that each child has as a birthright a good education that will allow each child to find a path through life that is meaningful and productive. But how to provide, implement, sustain, and assess such an educational system has proven to be extremely difficult. In part, of course, this difficulty arises from the fact that different individuals, communities, and generations have often very different ideas about what constitutes a sound education. Should public schools seek to educate citizens or train workers? Instill creativity or a work ethic? Urge conformity or individuality? And, even when schools and their stakeholders can determine exactly what it is that they are trying to do, how are they going to be able to assess whether or not they are effectively doing it?
The trend over nearly the last decade in response to this last question has been to require public schools to put their students through the paces of frequent standardized testing as a way of ensuring that schools and teachers are conveying the basics to each student. The federal law, implemented by George W. Bush, that coordinates the setting of standards for schools across the nation and that governs the testing process is No Child Left Behind. And in the years since its implementation, it has proven to be increasingly problematic. This paper examines some of the most serious of its pernicious, if unintentioned, effects.
No Child Left Behind, which is seeing its tenth anniversary this year, is the capstone to the concept of standards-based education, which is in essence simply the idea that there should...
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now