The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 that was signed into law by President George W. Bush and supported overwhelmingly by both parties, could possibly be the most misguided and complete failure in education reform. The NCLB is a federal law that mandates a number of programs aimed at improving U.S. education in elementary, middle and high schools by increasing accountability standards, if the standards are not met federal funding for the failing schools will be reduced. No child left behind is a well meaning law that lacks fundamentally in its overall design and application.
No child left behind is based on the outcome based education model, outcome-based education is a model of education that rejects the conventional center on what the school provides to students, in support of making students demonstrate that they "know and are able to do" whatever the required outcomes are. OBE reforms highlight setting clear standards for clear, quantifiable outcomes where the focus is on mathematics, language, science, and history, without ever referring to attitudes, social skills, or moral values.
The standardized test that must be passed for schools to receive their funding is one of the biggest drawbacks to no child left behind. Teachers are no longer teaching the students they are teaching to the tests. For multiple-choice tests, "teaching to the test" means focusing on the content that will be on the test, sometimes even drilling on test items, and using the format of the test as a foundation for teaching. Since this kind of teaching to the test leads first and foremost to better test-taking skills, increases in test scores do not essentially mean progress in academic performance. Teaching to the test also narrows the curriculum, forcing teachers and students to concentrate on memorization of facts, instead of nurturing basic and higher order abilities.
The statistics of failing schools support the fact that NCLB is deteriorating and needs reform. A report released by the Center on Education Policy details how half of all U.S. public schools fail to meet federal standards. According to the report, more than 43,000 schools — 48 percent — did not make "adequate yearly progress." The percentage, which is the highest since the controversial No Child Left Behind law took effect, reflects a disparity in failure rates, from a low 11 percent in Wisconsin to a staggering 89 percent in Florida.
However well meaning an act of congress is, to disregard complete failure and an ill conceived concept would be devastating. With the renewal of no child left behind coming up, there is no need to look at how it can be fixed it needs to be trashed and a new reform needs to be implemented that concentrates on giving the students an education instead of the ability to pass tests.
