Image via Wikipedia
The No Child Left Behind act was passed with good intentions, but the road to you-know-where is always paved with just that. Good intentions. What has really happened with NCLB is that test scores have become heavily weighted as a measure of education. Instead, a large percentage of school children are falling behind and even failing under the requirements of the act.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan is pushing to significantly alter the No Child Left Behind act. States have taken on the task to change NCLB as well. President Obama is also working to push through legislation that would relieve the burden on schools to succeed at all costs.
Children are not the only ones who suffer under NCLB. Schools do as well. A handful of under performing students drag down the entire school, triggering the NCLB. The school has to hire extra tutors to help with those students. However, the school is burdened with the cost of paying for those tutors, even though the requirement is a federal mandate. The schools then have to tap their local tax base to find the funds, and hope that the tutoring will bring the under performers up to speed
Couple this with the fact that 40 percent of students are not passing the tests, it’s a recipe for disaster. Children who would most likely perform at the average or above are victims of a poorly designed piece of legislation. Requiring that students perform to a set of restrictive standards is almost a guarantee of failure. Changing or eliminating NCLB only helps, not hurts.
