NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

The Effectiveness of the No Child Left Behind Capstone Project Act

Background3

Literature Review4

Definition and Identification7

Methodology and Sample8

Results9

Discussion10

Conclusion11

The Effectiveness of the No Child Left Behind Capstone Project Act

Background

From the day when the law called No Child Left Behind Capstone Project was launched in 2002 by George W. Bush, there has been a strong impact on the public school, the students, on their teaching, the training of teachers and on how to spend federal money for the education of students (Havnes & Mogstad, 2011). The law, passed bipartisan, and was designed to introduce a national standardized system, which is able to leave no child behind in education. It required that everyone must achieve a minimum standard of education; but every state had the freedom to determine the minimum level of education to be achieved. The result is a big problem of ethics and morality. In essence, the problem is present because a state can lower the level it wants to achieve in order to get federal funding (Johnson, 2010). Some states have even candidly stated that they had adopted this strategy in order to have the federal funds.

The pursuit of the objectives is to be measured by standardized tests, determined through the AMO Annual Measurable Objective; which seeks to determine if annual target that at least a certain percentage of students must pass in order to have a proper school AYP) if the school has achieved in the adequate yearly progress (AYP) (Dee & Jacob, 2010). A school that fails (does not reach the goal), although it has made substantial progress (AYP) on the previous year, even if only one in its class of students (White, Black, Hispanic, low-income students and students with disabilities which are called Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in turn divided in 13 other categories) as having failed. This helps in reaching out to all categories of students more or less at the same school level, at the end of the school. Proponents of No Child Left Behind Capstone Project say that 83% of IDEA is eligible to sit the same tests as non-IDEAs, while the remaining 17% of the test will be administered in differently (Koyama, 2012). Then there is the problem of racial groups. It was found that in schools with greater presence of African-American and Hispanic racial groups (compared to whites), the pre-established objective is achieved. It is fait to state that this is because there is a genuine diversity in the behavior of various groups in the test. But the problem is more serious than it seems, because in states like Alabama the option to choose public schools is not present. Students have to go to the school designated by the school district in which he/she resides (Kaufman & Blewett, 2012). So if a student lives in a school district with an inadequately functioning school is faced with two choices: either the parents do not care and leave the child in that school or move from the district in order to ...