President George W.Bush enacted the No Child Left behind (NCLB) aimed at students who came from a poor backgrounds receiving a quality education. Its primary purpose was to provide funding to schools, and in return, schools would focus on the student’s progress. The law stated that there would be an annual test for students in maths and reading from grade 3 to 8 to high school.
Some people supported the NCLB because it helped focus on students with special education, minorities, and low-income families. Schools had to employ teachers with high qualifications and had a grasp of the subject matter at hand. Schools were accountable since student progress was recorded, and if they did not meet the adequate yearly progress, there were consequences. Schools that did not meet the qualifications of the NCLB for two years in a row would be required to allow the transfer of their students. If the same result were seen in the third year in a row, the school would be required to offer free tutoring.
The law also had some upsides since it focused on specific students and ignored others. It only emphasized maths and reading and neglected other subjects like history and sciences (Barnum, 2017). Some schools did not want to be failures in the NCLB, which led to them focusing more on passing tests rather than teaching students based on gaining knowledge, this led to schools lowering their standards.
However, the law failed because some states were not on board with the law. Thus, this led to some states not hiring highly qualified teachers. Some education advocates claimed to be underfunded, which eventually led to some not achieving the primary goal. Students also contributed to the law’s failure since most students did not take the opportunity of free tutoring or transfers to better-performing schools.
Reference
Barnum, M. (2017). No Child Left Behind is dead. But have states learned from it? Chalkbeat. Web.