No Child Behind Act, Essay Example

Part one

The No Child Left Behind Act was established and signed into law by President George Bush on January 8, 2002 as a directive for education reform (P.L. 107-110). The law was intended to improve the reading and math [test] scores at schools in the United States targeted at education reform. Both primary and secondary schools are now facing accountability test that promises to leave no child behind at least in “test scores” for reading and math. Parent are provided with adequate information about the schools and given more choice in where they may send their children to school.

The more you learn the more out will realize that success in reading is the key to success throughout your child’s school career. NCLB Act requires States to maintain an accountability system – tests, graduation rates, attendance and other education indicators. Schools have to meet adequate yearly progress goals, as set by each state, by raising levels of achievement for subgroups such as minorities, special education, and those from low-income families, to a state- determined level. Every student must reach the proficiency levels, as determined by the state in which they live (http://www.nochildleftbehind.com/).

NCLB targets federal resources to support state and local school improvement efforts for children most at risk, with an emphasis on reading instructions. The act is directed to high poverty local schools which are required to hire only highly qualified teachers and within four years where they are assigned to teach in their fields and meet outlined criteria in the law. The law stipulates clearly qualification of the teachers right from the beginning, through professional development, core academic subjects and scientifically based research. Child development specialist especially those at the public elementary level must pass rigorous state tests, subject knowledge in reading arts, writing, mathematics and other areas of the basic elementary school curriculum.

The law also defines both beginning and practicing teacher and their competency. They must meet particular standards before being hired to work for he state schools. The law father provides for professional development upon which the teachers are helped to advance in knowledge to help students go through challenging standards. They are regularly evaluated basically on core academic subjects.

Part two

Scenario: Perry

Disability is not an inability and every child in a school must be treated well without any discrimination at all. The child’s personality gets richer with experience, health, exposure, education upbringing and many more. The kindergarten teacher should bear in mind that everyone whether handclapped or not learns differently. Strengths and weaknesses, preferences and interests, talents and motivation include our personal styles of learning. The kindergarten where Perry is joining I suggest that the teacher should not isolate him from the rest of the classmates in any school experience.

Under the professional development the act gives expansive definitions of the activities that would enable students like Perry to learn without any problem. The teacher is needed to improve his knowledge of the academic subject on which they teach through understanding individual differences of the pupils. From the previous school, Perry has been doing so well and the same is expected. There several requirements the school should provide for Perry to continue learning without any problem. The school should provide wide educational improvement plans that will help the student meet challenging standards. It should have high quality, sustained, intensive and classrooms where Perry can access with the wheel chair. It should also provide instruction IN methods of teaching children with special needs like Perry.

The classroom teacher should help Perry to understand his differences with others in the classroom accept his uniqueness and encourage him to learn everything with others. The teacher should always motivate the child through enhancing positive attitude that can do everything despite being handclapped. He should be given the opportunity to express his feelings, demands and experiences when learning. The teacher should also embrace and show spending more time in attending Perry to fee welcome to the new environment of learning. He can also be helped by the teacher in playing with the rest of the classmates.

For the parents, they also have the obligation to see that the individual difference in Perry is given coded attendance. As listed in the Individual education Plan, the parents are required to learn more about Perry’s disability. They are supposed to know how this disability affects his learning, movement, memory, behavior and so on. They should know the kind of special services and type of instruction that is effective. They should share relevant information with the teachers who are working with their child. Parents must also share their insights about Perry’s learning styles and preferences with his teachers.

References

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-110. [On-line]Available: http://thomas.loc.gov/.

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, “Title I– Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged; 34 CFR Part 200, Final Regulations” Federal Register 67, no. 231 (December 2, 2002).