No Child Left Behind and Fine Arts Classes, Research Paper Example

Prior to the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, schools across the country were underperforming due to a lack of accountability and available resources (Linn et al., 2002). Furthermore, high school programs were not well-designed to support children in their college or career goals. Research has demonstrated that this legislation has significantly improved the test scores received by children across several grade levels, but critics of this plan are unsure as to whether the test scores are designed to measure improved academic performance (Hanushek et al., 2010). In addition, studies of the No Child Left Behind Act have demonstrated that test scores measure a wide achievement gap between black and white students in the same grade level (U.S. Department of Education, 2006).

While many educators believe that the No Child Left Behind Act is a reasonable response to these issues, others believe that it creates too high of a focus on the distribution of finances based on test scores. Others believe that it is shifting too great of a focus towards academic subjects that are tested on and devalues subjects that are not a component of this testing process (Beveridge, 2010). As a consequence, many educators gear their classroom efforts towards test taking skills that are not necessarily applicable to the real world setting. Therefore, questions that need to be addressed include: Does the No Child Left Behind Act allow students to get a well-rounded education or does an emphasis on testing distract from this? In addition, does the No Child Left Behind Act improve inner-city schools in a manner that makes them as effective as those in a suburban or rural setting?

References

Beveridge, T. (2010). No Child Left Behind and Fine Arts Classes. Arts Education Policy Review, 111(1): 4–7

Hanushek EA, Rivkin SG. (2010). The Quality and Distribution of Teachers under the No Child Left Behind Act. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(3): 133–15.

Linn RL, Baker EL, Betebenner DW. (2002). Accountability Systems: Implications of Requirements of the No Child Left behind Act of 2001. Educational Researcher, 31(6): 3–16.

U.S. Department of Education. (2006). No Child Left Behind Act Is Working. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/importance/nclbworking.html