Introduction I. While you may or may not know it, each one of us spent a majority of our school years as a part of the largest experiment of education policy in American History. II. What I’m referring to is the enactment of No Child Left Behind, which aimed to close the growing achievement gap between minority and non minority students seen in America’s school system. III. While this may seem like a cause that is hard to disagree with, there are qualms over how the issue should really be handled. a. No Child Left Behind gained support because of its comprehensive approach towards closing the achievement gap by including new standards for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), reformed federal funding practices, and revised means of measuring success within schools. b. Those who oppose the act however, feel that the policies simply emphasize arbitrary goals and numbered requirements that do little more than encourage focus on meeting quotas instead of improving classrooms. IV. No Child Left Behind has brought the much needed attention that the American school system required and has done so in a way that allows for each state to participate in the improvement of their own curriculum. V. No Child Left Behind should be continued until each state can proudly say that their schools consistently meet AYP
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I. No Child Left Behind, while extremely lengthy and detailed, was actually instituted to serve as a revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. (Fuller, et al., 2007) a. The ESEA, which was enacted in 1965 and hadn’t been revised since, was the original set of guidelines for the federal government’s involvement with public schools. (Fuller, et al., 2007) b. NCLB began plans for new sanctions and goals for yearly improvement that were previously lacking. II. These goals of closing the achievement gap