No Child Left Behind
(NCLB)
What is No Child Left Behind?
STEP ONE: RECOGNIZING THE PROBLEM
- Noticed the schools didn’t care about the learning experience the children get.
- Noticed School grades were low.
- No one had an equal education, in regards to race and wether on not you could afford it.
George Bush was a huge contributor to the NCLB act.
STEP TWO: FORMULATING THE POLICY
A committee issued a report to the full chamber recommending that the bill be considered further. Only about 1 in 4 bills are reported out of committee.
Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary EducationAct.
ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT
It funds primary and secondary education. It also emphasizes equal access to education and establishes high standards and accountability. In addition, the bill aims to shorten the achievement gaps between students by providing each child with fair and equal opportunities to achieve an exceptional education.
STEP THREE: ADOPTING THE POLICY
George Bush and Congress are going to make standardized tests for all schools. And promised "High Quality" teachers, and to keep track of how the children are doing.
STEP FOUR: IMPLEMENTING THE POLICY
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
If the school's results are repeatedly poor, then steps are taken to improve the school.
- Schools that miss AYP for a second consecutive year are publicly labeled as in need of improvement, and must develop a two-year improvement plan for the subject that the school is not teaching well. Students have the option to transfer to a better school within the school district, if any exists.
- Missing AYP in the third year forces the school to offer free tutoring and other supplemental education services to struggling students.
- If a school misses its AYP target for a fourth consecutive year, the school is labelled as requiring "corrective action," which might involve wholesale replacement of staff, introduction of a new curriculum, or extending the amount of time students spend in class.
- A fifth year of failure results in planning to restructure the entire school; the plan is implemented if the school fails to hit its AYP targets for the sixth year in a row. Common options include closing the school, turning the school into a charter school, hiring a private company to run the school, or asking the state office of education to run the school directly.
STEP FIVE: EVALUATING THE POLICY
Benefits:
- No child gets left behind. No matter where you come from of how much your family makes, every one gets the same education opportunity.
- Seeks to narrow the class and racial achievement gap in the United States by creating common expectations for all. NCLB has shown mixed success in eliminating the racial achievement gap. Although test scores are improving, they are improving equally for all races.
- Gives school districts the opportunity to demonstrate proficiency.
- Gives money to the poorer schools.
Costs:
- A lot of money going into the worse schools to make them equal to the wealthier ones.
- Total federal education funding increased from $42.2 billion to $55.7 billion from 2001, the fiscal year before the law's passage, to fiscal year 2004
- Both conservative and liberal critics have argued that NCLB's new standards in federalizing education set a negative precedent for further erosion of state and local control