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students. After sub-dividing the school district population into different subgroups based on financial ability, ethnicity, and learning disabilities among others, everyone is given the same test with the same grading standards. During my interview with Mr. Petrelli, he suddenly exploded into a story about a student who was crucially lacking in reading skills, almost at the level of a middle kindergartener, yet this boy was in the second grade. So Mr. Petrelli worked with this student and his mother intensely over the school year and when the test results came back he was evaluated at middle 2nd grade proficiency. Although this student was able to make progress of two grades in a single year, he was still deemed failing under the high standards of the California test. If there had been more students in his subgroup who had failed along with him, the entire school would be regarded a "failing school". Although this system recognizes the different situations students come from, it does nothing to level the playing field when they are given the opportunity to get federal funds.

When schools are given funding through the act, the amount given to them has been found to be grossly inadequate to cover all the requirements of the act. The law demands that states establish academic standards, create assessments, monitor schools' progress, help schools needing improvement, pay for students to transfer and receive tutoring, and place a highly qualified teacher in every class room. All of these are legitimate proposals but the federal government has utterly under-funded the states' schools. The extra money that is needed to implement these standards came in a variety of ways, but always from the state itself. For example, most of this money came from cuts in subjects that are not believed to be as important as math and reading. Creative learning and physical education courses are reduced to near nothing. This change could cause many future issues since childhood obesity is on a dangerous rise. Of the amount congress promised to appropriate for this act, states have yet to see the $27 billion it authorized in the beginning.

If the No Child Left Behind Act were to be renewed, it would continue to be the greatest hindrance the nation's school systems would have to face. When highly competent teachers are labeled as unqualified and students who achieve great strides in an academic year are considered not proficient and are penalized, a major flaw in the system is obvious. When the federal government pays 8% of the funding for public schools and then requires states to follow laws and come up with the remainder of the money, there is an injustice that cannot be repeated. The No Child Left Behind Act was an attempt to make life better for all American families, but it would be a crime to let it happen again.

Works Cited
Boehner, John. Scott, Robert. "Testing in Schools." CQ Researcher 11 (2007): 321-344.
Hammond, Linda. "Evaluating 'No Child Left Behind.'" The Nation 121 (2007): 26-30
Mantel, Barbara. "No Child Left Behind." CQ Researcher 15 (2007): 469-492.
McCroskey, James. "Is It Just Measurement?" Communication Education 56 (2007): 509-
514
Petrelli, Ronald. Telephone interview. 10 Oct. 2007.

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