1 of 11

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 2

learn, while accountability is being taken away from the students and their families. They, too, should do what they can to improve education and not just place the blame on teachers and schools. Finally, if focus is on these particular students, what will happen to the average and above-average students? Will they be ignored, the Nation forced to implement No Child Left Behind, Part 2?

Despite its weaknesses, the NCLB Act does have some decent concepts. The problem is this reform is not generating new information; it states the same findings and recommendations given twenty-five years ago in the "A Nation at Risk" report. For example, a school in Scranton, Pennsylvania, working towards implementing NCLB practices into its district, explained "a major finding" showed that students were not performing well because they did not complete homework. Reasons for this included such behaviors as weak study habits or disorganization.(1) Is that really a major finding? These reports and reforms offer ideas that anyone with common sense should see as obvious. Will the NCLB Act fail completely? Surely not, but it can only succeed to a point when no further research or solutions are developed. Former Secretary of Education for Pennsylvania, Vicki L. Phillips, agrees, explaining, "'If NCLB is to survive as a viable piece of legislation, adjustments must be made based on the lessons states and districts are learning as they work to implement its noble goals'."(2) That is reflective decision-making at its best, but that is not what is being done.

The Act states, "Schools that do not make progress must provide supplemental services, such as free tutoring or after school assistance...."(4) However, if states are to apply the reforms of NCLB into their schools, funding and support must be available or the program will not reach the goals it intended. We will look back in another twenty-five years wondering why we bothered.

1 U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.) NCLB making a difference in Pennsylvania. Retrieved July 18, 2006, from http://www.ed.gov/nclb/overvie w/importance/difference/pennsy lvania.pdf

2 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Education. (2004, April 8). Governor Rendell and Secretary Phillips release NCLB position paper. Retrieved July 21, 2006, from http://www.pdenewsroom.state.p a.us/newsroom/cwp/view.asp?a=3 &q=102770

3 National Education Association. (n.d.). Teacher and paraprofessional quality. Retrieved July 21, 2006, from http://www.nea.org/esea/eseate ach.html

4 U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Accountability. Retrieved July 18, 2006, from http://www.ed.gov/nclb/account ability/index.html

Learn more about this author, Marisa Hefflefinger.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

• << previous page
• 1
• 2

Add your voice

Know something about Understanding the No Child Left Behind law?
We want to hear your view. Write now!