pros and cons of the no child left behind act
Pros and Cons of the No Child Left Behind Act
The 'No Child Left Behind Act' of 2001 is also referred to as 'nicklebee'. This act was proposed by president George W. Bush. It increased primary and secondary school accountability towards assisting parents in their choice of an institution for their children and gaining the desired academic goals.
- State-wise standardized tests have resulted in a higher enrollment for courses in mathematics than ever before.
- Best nine-year-old scoring history since 1971.
- Academic improvement in all subject categories.
- Legislation-encouraged accountability in public schools to provide additional educational options.
- Negligible achievement gap between white students and the minorities.
- Measurement based performance assessment.
- Detailed report cards explaining AYP performance, recommended para-professional or parental involvement, preferred line of curriculum, and instruction practice for each child.
- Special focus on students from low-income groups and disabilities.
- Increased responsibility towards ethnic subgroups by awarding schools adequate rating and recognition for measured school performance.
- Improved instruction and classroom practices and scope for more parent involvement.
- Funding for school technology used in classrooms as part of NCLB, is administered by the Enhancing Education Through Technology Program (EETT) funding for technology used within classrooms, professional teacher training, and development of online assessment interfaces.
- Lack of desired federal intervention to address random subject choice for teachers.
- Inadequate oversight in the case of special education.
- Manipulated test records and results.
- Lowered official state standards to earn incentives from improvement via standardized tests.
- Choice of select skills subsets to increase test performances leading to misinterpretation of educational outcome.
- Inherent cultural disparity since each culture is naturally gifted with certain skills.
- Lack of sensitivity towards Disabilities Education for the visually impaired and others.
- Inappropriate dispossession of students who fail to meet the desired performance levels for the school to earn incentive.
- Forced, mandatory curriculum in reading, writing, and arithmetic, impairing grade advancement.
- Restricted and almost absent non-English test assessments.
- Limited scope for research-based case studies, within the "one size fits all" policy.
- Improved accountability via accurate assessments.
- Fair evaluation of student progress.
- Enhanced preparatory curriculum for higher education and vocational training.
- Increased parental involvement.
- Systemic upgrades to improve learning and teaching.