No Child Left Behind

License to be Left Behind:

How the Public School System is denying us our Freedom to Fail

License to be Left Behind:

How the Public School System is denying us our Freedom to Fail

No child left behind is the type of statement one would expect to hear a leading man say at the apex of an emotional scene in a movie; “No child shall be left behind.” This

Pageantry of diction influences a culture that makes decisions based-on talking points, and headlines rather than informing themselves about the specifics of an issue. In the aftermath of September eleventh, a bill titled the Patriot Act was proposed, and in an emotional response to what can only be assumed was the rubric itself, as the actual specifics of the bill had not finished printing at the time of voting, was passed into law. The effect of that law, as is now becoming clear, has stripped Americans of their core freedoms. The lesson learned must not leave us; we must never again decide our future on an emotional response to rhetoric. That is why the No Child Left Behind Act must be examined, and the question must be posed; as American youth begins to academically trail the rest of the world, is the No Child Left Behind Act seeking to repair the problem, or the cause of it?

Under NCLB (No Child Left Behind) the accountability for a child’s education is placed by the Federal government into the hands of the state.

This is the first time an American president has set a goal of universal proficiency in

reading and mathematics for all children. The federal emphasis on literacy, reading,

and mathematics emphasizes teacher and school accountability, with negative

consequences when schools do not meet established improvement goals (U.S.

Department of Education, 2002).

Under NCLB the state must have accountability provisions that include how they will close the achievement gap. According to the Department of Education the achievement gap is defined as such;

The difference between how well low-income and minority children perform on

standardized tests as compared with their peers. For many years, low-income and

minority children have been falling behind their white peers in terms of academic

achievement (Department of Education, 2002).

States must also monitor that every student not excluding the disadvantaged achieve academic proficiency. Yearly assessments must be produced to inform parents