Educational Law Summary:
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA)
One of the most recent and controversial works of educational legislation passed by Congress has been that of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The rationale behind NCLB is to use standardized testing and other quantitative benchmarks on a regular basis to monitor the extent to which students are making adequate progress in school. To receive federal funding, all states must test at least 95% of students enrolled in public school grades 3-8 and at least once in high school. There must also be reports on the results of historically underserved subgroups such as ESL students; students in historically discriminated against racial and socioeconomic classes; and special education students (Klein 2015; Cortiellia 2006). The type of testing to which students are subjected, as well as the required proficiency level may be determined by the state itself but schools must make "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) to those goals and will be penalized if it misses its AYPs benchmarks. Students at failing schools must be given the option of transferring to adequate schools or receive tutoring although since the law's implementation in 2001 there is little evidence that students have availed themselves of either...
Because of the degree of penalization of schools, NCLB standardized assessments are often called "high stakes" testing (Cortiellia 2006)
Critics of NCLB such as educational policy analysis Diane Ravitch note that the state-by-state method of setting benchmarks means that states can sent very low standards. "Most states are now using NAEP's 'basic' achievement level as their definition of proficiency because NAEP's 'proficient' level is far beyond their reach ... Tennessee, for example, says that 90% of its 4th-grade students are proficient in reading, while NAEP says that only 26% are" (Ravitch & Chubb 2009). There have even been examples of teachers facilitating cheating amongst students to pass the test and virtually all critics of the law complain that teachers feel more motivated to structure their classroom curriculum to be focused on students passing standardized tests versus actually improving a student's basic skills (Strauss 2015).
Another recent educational law is that of the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA). IDEA mandates that schools provide special services to students with documented disabilities to ensure they make adequate progress in the least restrictive environment possible that can allow them to do…
