The No Child Left Behind Law

Dealing with the No Child Left Behind law when it comes to the School Ratings & Dropout Ratings

Written By:
Talesha Larene Binns
December 16th 2012

“No Child Left behind Law”

My thesis Statement: Even though school ratings are going up since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted, graduation rates are going down.
Since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted the school ratings are going up and this leaves the parents with certain pros and cons about the No child Left Behind law. With us deciding on the pros and cons of the No Child Left behind law there are many ways to deal with all this children dropping out and not caring. One way we can try to fix the problem is to address it. The dropout-prevention strategies vary widely. Prevention begins in part by identifying struggling students early and targeting them for assistance. Infrequent attendance, behavior infractions, and course failure—the “ABC’s” of dropout—more accurately predict whether a student will drop out of high school than do socioeconomic factors and can be used to predict high school graduation as early as the start of middle school. (Balfanz, Bridgeland, Moore & Fox, 2010). Even though school ratings are going up since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted, graduation rates are going down; The Georgia Statics states the dropout rate to be 32% with the American Indian leading by 59%. (Boostup, 2011)

The No Child Left behind Law has a great deal of information out there for us. With the No Child left behind law the studies shows that for the national No Child left behind Law high schools are losing at least 135,000 ScienceDaily (2008, February 16) youth prior to graduation. A disproportionate number of whom are African American and Latino’s. What is so surprising to all of us is the No Child Left behind law was pass so that every child will have a better education and along with everyone graduation with their class on time. With the “High-stakes, test-based accountability doesn’t lead to school improvement or equitable educational possibilities,” said Linda McSpadden McNeil, (2008, February 16).
The reason the dropout rate is so high is because “The research shows two sets of factors may be predictors of whether students will drop out or graduate from high school. One set is associated with the institutional characteristics of their families, schools, and communities; the other set is associated with the individual characteristics of the students themselves” Rumberger and Lim, 2008). Families, schools, and communities influence students’ decisions to drop out in several ways. For example, students living with both parents have lower dropout rates and higher graduation rates compared to students in other living arrangements. The employment status of their parents and their parents’ incomes play roles, as do parenting practices. These include monitoring a child’s progress in school, communicating with the school, and knowing the parents of their children’s friends. Students also are more likely to drop out if they have a sibling who did so (Rumberger & Lim, 2008).
All students, regardless of socioeconomic status, race or disability, should be expected to meet common standards that challenge them to acquire content and skills instead of the minimum requirements. All children are worthy of the same value of education as the other. We shouldn’t allow one student to excel, and one student to fall behind. We need programs to ensure the value of the next generation will succeed. We need things that will simply increase the amount of standardized testing, which puts an even greater burden on educators to teach for the sake of a test, rather than for the sake of learning. What is really needed is increased funding for education in order to help schools, not just more often unrealistic standards, with no real assistance in meeting them. In addition, it penalizes schools in underprivileged areas, where the problem is less on the teacher, but more in the home.
With different ways to educate our children we need to know that all of our public schools had access to equal funding, the No Child Left Behind law would probably help raise the level of educational excellence in our country. With all these concern parents they need to know that schools in wealthy neighborhoods have more expensive homes and they have a higher property tax income to fund their schools. The teachers are paid more, the facilities are better and kept in good repair, text books and computer access is available to students. The opposite is true in low-income areas with smaller less expensive homes. This creates a basic inequity in the quality of education. The No Child Left Behind law is designed as if all educational opportunities in America were equal. We know that isn’t true. If it was then why are the graduation rates going down and the dropout rates going up instead of down. Since the No Child Left behind (NCLB) law took effect in 2002, it has had a sweeping impact on U.S. public school classrooms. It affects what students are taught, the tests they take, the training of their teachers and the way money is spent on education even though school ratings are going up since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted, graduation rates are going down.We must remember that Seven and a half years after former President George W. Bush signed the biggest quality-control effort in American education into law, NCLB has proven itself to be a classic case of good idea, bad execution. (NCLB), circa 2009. Now that we have a new President his goal is to reauthorize NCLB, but modified to be similar to his $4.35 billion Race to the Top initiative, which requires five major education reforms for K-12 public education, and pushes states to compete for education funding, rather than automatically receiving it based on a formula. What needs to really happen is “The law's emphasis needs to shift from applying sanctions for failing to raise test scores to holding states and localities accountable for making the systemic changes that improve student achievement”. This way the Even though school ratings are going up since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted, graduation rates are going down This will allow each and every child to have a far shot at learning all they can and become a successful at any job they set their mind too. Will the school ratings and dropout ratings ever see eye to eye so that all of our children can become a success in whatever they choose to do in life. Since the No Child Left behind (NCLB) law took effect in 2002; it has had a sweeping impact on U.S. public school classrooms. It affects what students are taught, the tests they take, the training of their teachers and the way money is spent on education even though school ratings are going up since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted, graduation rates are going down.