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No Child Left Behind

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No Child Left Behind
Charles Barr
EDU 623-Introduction to Teaching and Learning
Instructor: Julie-Ann Adkins

No Child Left Behind
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, also known as NCLB is a US federal law that was originally proposed by President George W. Bush in 2001. The legislation funds a number of federal programs aiming at improving the performance of U.S. schools by increasing the standards of accountability for states, school districts, and schools, as well as providing parents more flexibility in choosing which schools their children will attend. Additionally, it promotes an increased focus on reading and math .The intent of NCLB is that all children will meet state academic achievement standards to reach their full potential through improved programs .People who say No Child Left Behind has made schools better often cite the premise of the law because struggling students would be brought up to the level of their peers, students would get more individual attention and other supporters point to improvements in school performance, including test scores as the reason they think the act has helped schools (Armstrong, Henson, &Savage, 2009, p.72-73) . In addition, supporters say the law makes schools more accountable because NCLB has improved teachers’ performance by giving them guidelines for performance or by establishing new requirements for teachers.
There is even greater agreement about the negative effects of No Child Left Behind. Those who believe the law has made things worse cite testing, specifically the excessive focus on testing, or the fact that teachers must “teach the test.” Those who say the law has made things worse say that standards are being lowered and that the law does not work for all students, including special education and higher achieving students on both spectrums. But first, let us examine the flaws in the "No Child Left

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