by Millie Fischer

Created on: August 15, 2010

How No Child Left Behind is Failing Education

 In 2001, President George W. Bush reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 under the name of “No Child Left Behind (NCLB)” (CEP 2).  Enacted as a law meant to “improve the basic skills of the nation’s public school children, particularly poor and minority children” (Blass 2), the bill complicates this vision with around 1,000 pages total; hundreds of which consist of outlines, requirements, and specifics ( NCLB ). Though supporters of the bill attest that the NCLB policy has benefited many people since it became enacted, hidden within its pages is a veritable bureaucratic maze of red tape.  This means, as some opponents suggest, that many more schools and students are being affected negatively than positively.  When it was enacted, NCLB introduced a set of guidelines for public schools to improve education through the  following changes: heightened accountability, enhanced flexibility and local control of   funds, enhanced parental choice, and increased use of research-based instructional   methods.  ( Vannest et al 148 )

These guidelines became otherwise known as the “four pillars (of): accountability, flexibility, parents, and methods” ( Vannest et al 1).  The NCLB act proposes that these goals include “meeting the educational needs of low-achieving children,” “distributing and targeting resources sufficiently to make a difference to local educational agencies,” and “providing children with an enriched and accelerated educational program” among others (24).  

The most contentious part of NCLB by far has been the Academic Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements.  Opponents cite a perceived unequal division of resources and funds to all schools in need.  This inequality is easily seen once an individual understands what No Child Left Behind says about the place of standardized testing and “proficiency.”  Schools that meet the AYP standards of their states, for example, receive “sanctions and rewards, such as bonuses and recognition” (NCLB 31), but Gale Russell Chaddock argues that schools failing to meet these requirements are penalized (1).  In section 1457 of NCLB, the penalty for failing to meet Adequate Yearly Progress requirements is listed as the withholding of funds “for state administration…until

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