American Education System Essay

American Educational System
Education system is different in all over the world. In a lot of countries they had changed their educational system. The United States of America have made a lot of changes in their educational system. For example, In 2001 President George Bush passed a new policy called "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB). This policy made a lot of differnece in American Educational policies. No Child Left Behind is the name for the most recent update to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. No Child Left Behind was made to be able to compete with other countries. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act(ESEA) was passed in 1965 law by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society program. The Elemantary and Secondary
Education Act was made to help cover the expanses for disadvantaged students. The Elemantary and Secondary Education Act was reauthorized more than six times since 1965, when the law was first passed. The Education and Secondary Education Act offers more than one billion dollars under its first law, which is Title I(No Child Left Behind: An Overview). Title I is a section of the law that provides federal funding to school districts to educate disadvantaged students.The Title I was initially created under the Elemantary and Secondary Education Act and it is now under No Child Left Behind. The cause of the No Child Left Behind is to ensure that the students in all the public schools to achieve important academic goals while educated in safe classrooms and schools by good teachers.
There are few requirements for the new law. The law rquires the school districts to make sure all students to reach 100% student proficiency levels within twelve years on tests based on important academic potent. Additionally, the new law requires schools to close gaps between students who are economically advantaged students and who are from different economic background, racial, ethnic backgrounds, and students with disabilities(Yell,
M.L.). There are few requirements for No Child Left Behind. Each states must test students math and reading skills in grades three through eight and one time in during hogh school years. The schools must report the results. According to the law schools are kept track toward their goal by a system called “adequate yearly progress”. If a school misses adequate yearly progress for two years in a row , it has to allow students to transfer to a better performing public school in the same district. If a school misses adequate yearly progress three years in a row , it must offer free tutoring. If a school continue to miss achievement than state can be involved and the state can choose to shut the schools down, turn them into the charter schools, take them over, or use another. NCLB also requires states to make sure the teachers are highly qualified, which means that the teachers have bachelor’s degree in the subject that the teacher is teaching. Also, the teachers need to have state certification(Yell, M.L.). No Child Left Behind has affected different group of people in many different ways.
Schools and Staffing Survey did research whether No Child Left Behind has affected teachers negatively. The fedral School and Staffing Survey studied years between 1994 to 2008, which means they studied years before No Child Left Behind was introduced and after it was introduced to the United States. School and Staffing survey asked teachers about how the teachers view their work environments and attitudes toward their job. The survey included how satisfied the teachers are and commitment to remain in educating. No Child Left Behind affected the public school teachers positively in how teachers feel about classtoom control and administrator support, and job satisfaction. However they also found it had some negative influences in teachers’ perception(Estimating the Effects of No Child Left Behind on Teachers' Work Environments and Job
Attitudes). No Child Left Behind made some positive effects towards students. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the largest nationally representative and counting assessment in the country, the score of nine year olds increased only four points in reading section during three decades before the introduction of NCLB. It means average nine year olds gained 0.1 point per year. However from 1999 to 2012, nine year olds gained nine points in reading section. Also, thirteen year olds increased same amounts of points between 1999 to 2012 as they did between 1971 to 1999. This means students made same gains in less time. In math section of National Assessment of Educational Progress, nine year olds in 1990 scored 230, and that score was only increased by two points in 1999. The math score increased drastically during NCLB years. It was similar to thirteen year olds too. The average score for thirteen year olds in 1999 was 276 and it went up to 285 by 2012( Lanae Erickson Hatalsky and Stephenie Johnson). However, there were many side effects for NCLB. First negative effects of NCLB is the elimination of arts and social studies. This is happening because a lot of teachers prefer teaching materials that are going to be on the state test. Second, the test scores are lower than they were before NCLB. The reason for lower test grade is because every single student is required to take same test because of NCLB. The test scores are very important because the scores determine the amount of money that schools will be funded. Making students to take same test is unfair because every students have different abilities. Third, there have been a lot of school closing because of NCLB. Theses schools are closed because they did not meet the required test score for many times and this caused the lack of funding. The testing is unfair because even the students who have been in the United States for just over a year are forced to take the same test as the students who lived in the United States for a long time. Lastly, the graduation rate is going down and the number of students attending in colleges is lower. This is because the students are not tested on the materials that help them on the test required to get into college or university(Effects). On December 10, 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act(ESSA), which is legislation to rewrite the Elementary amd Secondary Education Act and replace No Child Left Behind. ESSA supports to high schools where one-third of the students do not graduate and to schools with groups of traditionally underserved students who constantly demonstrate low performance( By Promoting Indicators That Measure School Climate and Discipline Practices, ESSA Pushes States and Districts to Use Data to Identify and Support Schools with High Rates of Discipline Referrals, Disaggregate This Data for Subgroup Accountability, and Track the Success of New Discipline Practices). ESSA and NCLB have different in the way how standards are set and tracked. The statewide testing requirements are different. When the education was under NCLB the states had to administer a state wide assessment in English and math annually in third to eighth grade years and once in high school years. The states also had to report on performance and performance among particular subgroups of students, which included students color, low income students, English language learners, and students with disabilities. Now under ESSA, the conference committee’s language maintains the same testing schedule and reporting requirements for statewide testing, but it gives option to give single summative test. Also, the teacher equity is changed as the Congress replaced NCLB into ESSA( Kim, Donald). During NCLB era, new teachers must have a bachelor’s degree. NCLB alsorequired each state plan to include they would take to ensure that low income students and colored students were not taught at higher rates than their wealthier colleagues, by inexperienced and unqualified teachers. On the other hand, ESSA eliminated the highly qualified teacher provision, providing more flexibility to the states to determine who to teach classes. It also authorizes states to use funding to implement teacher(Hiler, Tamara).