The Failures of No Child Left Behind

On the front page of the New York Times today, there was an article about how the controversial No Child Left Behind Act is not closing the achievement gap between white students and minority students. I was glad to see such an article on the front page of the newspaper, as it touches upon an issue that the public normally would not be exposed to. Media today does not cover stories such as these, mainly because the public craves entertaining stories (short attention spans anyone?), and stories about education, human rights, and other similar topics are branded as too "boring" for most people. I'm sure that a story about the No Child Left Behind Act would never be seen on the local news stations, and rarely on CNN, Fox News, and the like.

This was a great article that highlighted some of the problems with No Child Left Behind, which was passed into law in 2002. One of the main goals of NCLB was to try and level the wide achievement gap that exists between minorities and whites. The law made schools focus on their minority populations by defining racial groups and keeping track of their achievement. Before the law, most schools only kept track of average student performance, which did not recognize the disparities between whites and minorities. Studies show, however, that No Child Left Behind has not closed the education gap, as test scores for minority groups are still are not up to par with what the law set out to achieve.

With all this debate behind NCLB, the Obama administration will have to rethink the law and make fundamental changes for it to be successful in the long term. Adjustments such as distributing quality teachers evenly to schools in affluent and poor neighborhoods, and to raise national academic standards will hopefully help solve our nation's education gap. As I have stated before, it is important for the U.S. to have quality schools and educated students if we are to compete in an ever changing world. While former President Bush may have had good intentions in creating NCLB, there was not enough thought and proper funding put into it. This is not all entirely his fault, as the events of 9/11 had an effect on the priority level of NCLB. Hopefully once the economic crisis is subdued somewhat, President Obama can reform the education system and reverse some of the policies made by No Child Left Behind.

For anyone that is interested...a short interview with President Obama about his thoughts on No Child Left Behind.