Zachary Conner

English Composition 1
Yelena Mason
04/24/15
The No Child Left Behind Act, which was ratified in 2002, was our governments
attempt at overhauling our education system. The intention was to hold schools
accountable by implementing standardized testing that shows the amount of progress a
school or school district is making. Any public school receiving Title I funds are required
to make adequate yearly progress (Webley) based on guidelines set by the state
board. There is also an inclusion requirement which makes it necessary to include
children with disabilities in the testing and in normal classroom environments. After ten
plus years it is time to change the education system to something that promotes
learning and not teaching to a standardized test.
One example of the negative impact this program has had is Rachel Carson
middle school in Herndon Virginia. The following paragraph from an online article sums
up one of the main issues with No Child Left Behind:
Rachel Carson middle school in Herndon, Va., is full of winners. In the past year
alone, its students have taken home trophies for all kinds of competitions, from the
science bowl and debate league to the state's chess championship and a haiku contest.
The school has won a governor's award for educational excellence for the past four
years and has been named a school to watch by a national forum for middle-school
reform every year since 2004. And yet to the federal government, Rachel Carson, like
many other well-to-do suburban schools in the U.S., is failing. (Webley)

This article goes on to explain that when five percent of the schools students failed to
passed the States standardized test the school was deemed a failure. This is despite
being home to a gifted-and-talented center and 1,001 trophies (Webley) which were
won in various educational contests. The resources at this school, that were once
devoted to making ninety five percent of the student body the best and the brightest, are
now being diverted to improving the scores of the lowest performing group. This has
caused this school and many others to restrict programs and teach to what is contained
on the tests and not to an overall quality education.

One of the major faults with No Child Left Behind is that, while it is helping
encourage those on the lower end of the educational spectrum to do better, it is not
helping our most gifted students achieve their full potential. Our country should work to
develop the best and the brightest while also working to increase the ability of those less
fortunate. The reality of the current system is that it brings both ends of the spectrum
closer to the middle. Where will our business leaders, doctors, and ground breaking
Scientists come from if they are not properly developed before they attend college?

Special education teachers argue NCLB contradicts the Individuals with

Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Children with individualized education plans (IEP) are
forced to take standardized tests on their grade level. (Randolph) This quote from an
online submission highlights yet another problem with No Child Left Behind. While it is
important for children with disabilities to interact with the regular student body there
should be some thought given to having them tested at the same level. Individualized
Education Plans are designed to help students with various disabilities learn at a pace
that is more appropriate for them. The inclusion of these students in the testing is not
fair to those do not learn as fast as their peers. It also makes it very difficult to make a
test that accurately determines the progress of students across such a wide range of
abilities.

During the ten plus years that No Child Left Behind has required standardized
testing many Colleges have eliminated the requirement of standardized tests as part of
their admissions policies. They have decided that the knowledge and ability of students
is not always fully demonstrated by the results of a test. The overall education of a
student is more important than the one time performance on a test. During a time where
the administrations of the highest level of education are moving away from standardized
tests as a means of justification our Government is implementing more testing than ever

before. If Colleges have decided there is a better method maybe those in charge of
education prior to that should do the same.

Students on IEPs also require additional staff with specialized credentials. In a

time when more is being required of school districts many states are reducing the
amount of funding available to them. This means the non-core classes are being cut to
accommodate the requirements of both No Child Left Behind and the IEP program. This
greatly reduces the overall quality of the education being received by the majority of the
students. These programs, which include Fine Art s and Vocational classes, are often
times the very classes students who struggle with traditional education need.

Many people feel that No Child Left Behind and the IEP program are working just
fine and do not need modified. They will point out that average test scores are rising and
more children are getting a normal education. Many children on IEPs do not learn at the
same rate as their peers. Through the current programs they are pushed through each
grade, many times not learning near as much as the other students. It is extremely
difficult to fail an IEP student in an individual class. It is nearly impossible to fail them for
the entire year. I have a nephew who struggles to comprehend simple written words but,
since he is on an IEP he will graduate this year with his class.

For many years students who struggled with traditional education had the option
of attending a vocational school. Research suggests that some schools may try to steer
students away from vocational education in order to help improve the adequate yearly
progress metric. In an article in the Journal of Industrial Teacher Education JeanAnn
Goana states that students with learning disabilities, who have had a difficult time
processing the written and spoken language, have had more success in educational
settings that promote kinesthetic means rather than a more traditional instructional
approach. (Goana 53) When schools try to keep certain students away from this type of
education to meet the requirements of a metric the student usually does not win.

The fact that test scores are rising is not necessarily due to children being better
educated or even that they are learning more. Testing can be manipulated to favor a
certain segment of the population or the standards can be adjusted to allow more
children to pass. Reducing the number of electives available also reduces the quality of
the education. The ability to take an art class or a creative writing class may spark an
interest in someone that will someday make a living with it. How many Engineers do we

need to lose because they didnt have an Engineering class available until they went to
college and by then they were intimidated. The reality is that these issues, and many
more, are happening under the current program.

By year's end, Utah had removed some of the more difficult questions from its
statewide exams, and Ohio refined its criteria for determining which schools were lowperforming so that the number shrank from 760 to 200. These changes inspired other
states to follow their lead. (Webley) This quote describes how states reacted to the
initial results from the first year of testing. They realized the tests were too hard, or the
criteria for achievement too aggressive, and they simply changed it. This is not how an
effective education program should be run. Without some sort of oversight how can we
be sure all states are really doing what is right.

All children deserve a proper education. What is proper for each individual is a
debate that will go on forever. What is certain is that in over ten years of existence No
Child Left Behind is not the program needed to move our countrys education forward.
Children with certain disabilities need to be taught and tested differently. They do not
need to be forced through a system that does not allow them to develop the skills
required to lead a productive life. Ultimately our country will continue to fall behind other

countries in many areas if we do not develop a system that encourages students to

achieve great things. This cannot be done by trying to force the top and bottom to
achieve educational mediocrity.

Works Cited
COLKER, RUTH1. "Politics Trump Science: The Collision Between No Child Left Behind
And The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act." Journal Of Law & Education 42.4
(2013): 585-631. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 24 Mar. 2015.
Gaona, JeanAnn. "The Effects Of The No Child Left Behind Act On Career And
Technical Education: Implications For Students With Special Needs." Journal Of
Industrial Teacher Education 41.2 (2004): 49-57. Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson).
Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
Lee-Tarver, Aleada. "Are Individualized Education Plans A Good Thing? A Survey Of
Teachers' Perceptions Of The Utility Of Ieps In Regular Education Settings." Journal Of
Instructional Psychology 4 (2006): 263. Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
Randolph, Kelli, and Dylinda Wilson-Younger. "Is No Child Left Behind Effective For All
Students?" Parents Don't Think So." Online Submission (2012): ERIC. Web. 24 Mar.
2015.
Webley, Kayla. "Why It's Time To Replace No Child Left Behind." Time 179.3 (2012): 40.
Middle Search Plus. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.