No Child Left Behind Act

They're not happy with the 100% target set out by the act. Many feel that it is an impossible target to achieve. They are asking for the removal of penalties, which could mean the loss of millions of dollars and result in schools closing, if the target isn't met.

The purpose of The No Child Left Behind Act is: "holding schools, local educational agencies, and States accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students, and identifying and turning around low-performing schools that have failed to provide a high-quality education to their students, while providing alternatives to students in such schools to enable the students to receive a high-quality education." US Department of Education.

The feeling is that many States will lower the bar to ensure that their students attain grade level. This will ultimately benefit no one.

Will teachers "fake" the grades of their students in order to get a good rating? If so, how could this possibly benefit students?

Is this Act merely the work of politicians who want to appear that they care about education?

Where do gifted children fit into this act? Are they given any consideration?

Many parents feel that the act is bad for gifted students because it doesn't recognize their needs. Will lowering the bar make regular classrooms even less challenging?

In theory, the Act seems to want to help those students that are falling behind. It wants to make teachers accountable.

Its purpose is to make them take responsibility if their students don't attain grade level.

In many cases, the teachers are dealing with children that need help that isn't available. They have large classes where inclusion of all is the norm regardless of the issues the students face.

Under these circumstances, can a teacher really guarantee that every students in her class will attain 100% grade level?

Very often, politicians sit at their desks and come up with these ideas which in theory sound reasonable but in practice are impossible.

Is The No Child Left Behind Act one of them?

The US Education website has an article entitled "25 Years After a Nation at Risk." It updates the 1983 report "A Nation at Risk" and is available to read in PDF format.

Go here to read it.


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