Education Policy and No Child Left Behind Act Research Paper

Education Policy and No Child Left Behind Act - Research Paper Example From the discusssion it i clear that the education in the US schools has been passing through crisis and that is what has been opined by the experts time to time. When Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is already active since 1965, what is the need to enact a new legislation under the name and style of the NCLB Act of 2001? In order to get an appropriate reply to this basic question, it will be most pertinent to scrutinize the prevailing state of educational affairs in the US schools. Some of them are worth pondering as being listed in the ensuing paragraph.This essay stresses that  that only 30 percent of students entering high school are able to read at grade level. This simply means that only one-third of the students are ready for college education. Only 50 percent of students of color go for higher studies after finishing their high school. The dropout rates are fairly high at nearly 7,000 high school students on every school day. In the highly competitive job mark et, the high school dropouts are at odds to get a good-paying job. They are more at risk of turning less healthy and die earlier. They are likely to become parents relatively at young age and need social welfare assistance in their life impacting society at large. Students' performance highly depends upon the teachers and their skills. Schools who cater to poor students find it most difficult to recruit certified and experienced teachers.; moreover, almost 50 percent of the teachers leave the profession in five years and 33 percent within 3 years of their joining. Surprisingly, the US schools spend over $ 2.6 billion every year just to replace the teachers who have left the profession. It is astonishing to note that about 70 percent of all eighth-grade students are unable to read at their grade level; this is what has been reported by the National Assessment of Educational Progress in their report card (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2012). The shortcoming comes in the way of the students especially, the students of color and English language learners to pass high school diploma. Research indicates that students drop out due to their weak performances in Math and English. It is quite obvious that students cannot master higher courses at graduate level when they find difficulty in reading and comprehending the content offered in their textbooks. They remain weak in Math because they are unable to understand the theories explaining Math. Arguments against NCLB Some of the major arguments that have been proposed against NCLB can be described as per the following (Carleton, 2012). 1. The program has not been funded adequately by the federal government ever since its inception. 2. How students perform on math and multiple-choice reading tests could be the sole basis of their achievements. 3. All efforts of the teachers are directed and focused toward 'test' because of the fear that in the event of students failing the test their own jobs may be in jeopardy. Expe rts argue that due to this narrow approach creativity has been lost in the education. 4. A special emphasis has been given to math and reading