The Apparent Failure of No Child Left Behind Legislation

Resolution: Resolved, that No Child Left Behind should be repealed.

Name: Cody Dean, Woodrow Wilson High School, Beckley, WV

Resident Assistant: Richard Tabalno

Background: The legislation entailed within this debate is the direct result of poor planning, deceitful tactics, and the false assumption that we coexist in socioeconomic equality. Imposing this type of regulation upon our education system is both unconstitutional and unrealistic. If we truly desire to improve our educational standards in America, we must seek to unify expectations, and place the power closer to the hands of the people. The power of the federal government has exponentially grown over time. I urge you to consider the consequences of placing the education of our nation's children within the grasp of the biased pundits and unyielding politicians in congress. As has been seen in realistic, unbiased statistics, the affect of the No Child Left Behind act has placed am even heavier hindrance upon the very children it was intended to assist. We must repeal this legislation for the sake of both current students and those who will come after us. Otherwise, we must come face to face with the fact that we promote the ideals of discrimination, dirty politics, and economical suppression.

Arguments:

Since the federal government has no power granted by the constitution to govern anyaspect of education, states often lower their standards to meet the percentage of students passing their standardized exams.

o Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and over 12 other states have lowered their testing standards to meet the ridiculous criteria imposed by NCLB and to keep needed federal funding.

Standardized testing in no way reflects a student's complete abilities. Teachers often "teach to the test" and only cover material that they know is on the test. This limits the amount of practical knowledge that students receive on a daily basis.

o If we continue to base our understanding of educational success upon statistics provided by flawed standardized exams, we will no longer have a clear understanding of each individual's abilities.

This legislation discriminates against minorities and those with physical and mental disabilities.

o Several intricate details concerning the treatment of several blind students in public school across the nation were omitted. The plan clearly states that no child can be read the test, so the scores of such students were reported and recorded as zeros.

The current administration used this education bill to feed the flow of information to military recruiters and made it hard for parents/students to opt out of the program.

o The bill requires information concerning name, address, and telephone number to be released to military recruiters. Although we are given the option to opt out of the program, doing so usually means your name will also not be reported to college recruiting officials and scholarship organizations.

Since the only subject areas tested are mathematics and reading (science is to be tested starting in the 208-09 term), curriculum tends to become highly based upon these "core" areas. Thus, arts, humanities, and foreign language classes suffer with little discernable benefit to anyone.

o Arts classes are often reduced or even eliminated to make room in the budget for increased money to be carelessly spent on the preparation and administration of standardized tests.

Bibliography:

Iowa, Illinois lower bar on student scores (2008)

http://www.studentsfirst.us/news/contentview.asp?c=181547

States Start Slowly on NCLB Proficiency Goals

http://www.edweek.org/

NCLB Schools Required to Report Information to Military

http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/nclb.military.recruiters.htm

NCLB: A Summary

http://www.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html