IMPACT OF NCLB ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

The Impact of NCLB on Student Achievement in Civic Education

The Impact of NCLB on Student Achievement

Introduction

The American education system is already in doldrums. In a country with such a diversified culture, providing education to all seems to be a daunting task. Teachers, educationist and other scholars hold the point of view that despite the promulgation of No Child Left behind Act, (NCLB) in 2002, there still exist potential gap between academic achievements of white students and other nonwhite's students. This paper presents an in-depth discussion on the impact of NCLB on student achievement (Amrein, 2006).

Discussion on NCLB

At present, there is much debate between the federal government, parents of students and teaching staff in schools, on the actual results achieved under the NCLB. On the one hand, parents of minority students and activists argue that NCLB dilutes the quality of public education as it promotes the state departments of education lower educational standards to meet the mandate of law, and encourages teachers to teach only the minimal concepts enough to pass the achievement tests. On the other hand, the federal government welcomes the reports received from different states, reflecting a marked improvement in the scores of students in math and reading. This essay, however, focuses on students from the various exceptional education programs, which may well be being partially or totally excluded from the official count of achievement, as later explained (Meier, 2007).

Benefits of NCLB

The NCLB has numerous benefits. Even students who remained in their struggling schools, the choice not to enjoy the places of transfer, the improvement has continued to experience when their peers had switched schools. These results indicate that the student population and particular attention are closely linked to the school and student success (Meier, 2007).

An imminent reauthorization of NCLB by the federal Congress, possibly before this term is over, has served as a stimulus to a great feeling on the part of parents, advocates, nonprofits organizations, and systems protect and defend the rights of individual students, that in fact the special education student, contrary to the legislative intent of NCLB is being left behind, figuratively and literally, in terms of school performance. Under the directions of NCLB, schools tend to evaluate on basis of sub-groups of students.

Some of the PEW reports are focused specifically on education, but others publish overall data about Internet use in the United States. Interestingly, the PEW general population statistics on Internet use mirror results reported by NCES, which shows the persistence of a digital divide for the traditionally disadvantaged population (DeBell & Chapman, 2006). For example, higher household incomes and higher educational attainment coincide with greater use of the Internet for the population at large. However, PEW also reports that youth increases the possibility of Internet use, and it is highest (87%) among users less than 30 years old. The point is made by Prensky (2001) that children today have never known a world without the Internet. He describes today's youth as digital natives whereas ...