Peter Roberts

English 120
Professor Julie Bryant
October 22, 2014
No Child Left Behind Stops Children from Moving Forward
The No Child Left Behind Act imposes standards-based education reform based on the
premise that setting high standards and establishing measurable goals can improve individual
outcomes in education.(2) The NCLB promotes a standard of inadequacy, and mixes
economical influence with educational value, which in turn causes broad diversification, and
taints success. President Bill Clinton expresses a negative opinion on the act at the 2008 Aspen
Institutes Ideas Festival. He thinks its a massive misallocation of resources because it has
downgraded Americas educational standards. Education is highly correlated with economic
status in many different ways. People with degrees are specialized practitioners, and therefor are
at higher demand and statistically make more money than there degreeless counterparts. The No
Child Left Behind Act has made education a given for all students, which in turn has done
nothing but lower general standards. (3) Students capable of more intense educational
achievement are grouped into systems without the same capabilities, so that the systems i.e.
schools can achieve an equilibrium between test scores, which in turn allows for a mediocre
standard; for the schools efforts are too balance scores and achieve the most amount of funding.
If education was a system based on competition like our market today, the law of laissez faire
would imply that national and state interference in schools would be nothing but detrimental to

the system as a whole. If the law was practiced, and only being successful was your means to
resources, than in the beginning it would create a noticeable gap between the capable and the
incapable, but with due time it would even out with a much higher general level of education
nationally. The amount of money spent on the act has been one of the leading expenditures of the
United States government, The programs involved were funded at $25.7 billion in fiscal year
2014.(1) Reports show that the amount of schools that arent passing the standardized tests
hasnt lowered at all. Instead it has increased since testing was originally started in 2001.
On a national and state scale, education is no longer based on personal achievement.
Instead its based on a general standard. All state schools administer tests to their students to
monitor the comprehension on a marginalized scale of general knowledge. This allows for room
for mediocrity in students, teachers, and administration. Teachers devote weeks of curriculum to
push their students so they can get a good score on standardized tests. These tests enforced by the
No Child Left Behind Act are standardized and administrated too all schools. The tests are
created by individual states, but regardless the tests dont account for any variation in the
students including learning style, individual abilities, and disabilities. Student success can lead to
more funding, promotions, and even raises for teachers. The issue with this is that the test has no
customization as far as individual students go. This means the results of the test are always
tainted based on each individuals prerogative whether its the student or the teacher. Teachers
can devote more time in class to these general standards to achieve better scores (i.e. money)
which in turn wastes resources on people taking education for granted instead of funding a
competitive system that provides properly allocated resources based on the capability of
individuals, and qualification of the teacher as well as level of curriculum. The No Child Left
Behind Act discourages competition that would hold individual students accountable. It also

causes students to be grouped together to balance test scores and doesnt test what level a student
is able to perform at. The only real competition is for more money.
Education for youth is mandatory and a right in America instead of a privilege to be
earned. This has downgraded educational standards to a minimum. My math teacher told me
most teachers try to teach to the middle of the class and hope that the slowest portion of the class
can keep up, and the fastest portion dont get bored and fall asleep. This is an unethical approach
based on human behavior. Statistically the faster portion of the class works harder and pushes
themselves to succeed, and the people that are falling asleep arent necessarily the people that it
comes the easiest too, but instead the students who dont care, and dont want to be there in the
first place. The students that dont care arent necessarily more unintelligent, but instead bide by
a minimum standard. This gradually causes the material to be downgraded and oversimplified.
Now imagine the state and national perspective on the general class rooms curriculum. Do they
create a standardized test to monitor general criteria, or do they create a test that evaluates
individuals and groups them into a competitive system. The No Child Left behind Act has caused
all students to achieve a minimum and has put no stress on individuals achieving their maximum.
It causes teachers to stop and wait for the individuals with no motivation and who lack skills to
catch up. Gradually these types of students have become the norm because all they have to do is
satisfying the bare minimum, and there is little to no reward for over achieving. When the
legislature sees the test scores and distribute budgeting, they allocate resources between schools
instead of the individual students and teachers. Schools segregate the student body as best they
can by providing different levels such as remedial and AP classes. Taking AP classes can allow
for a GPA bump and college credit but it doesnt dictate funding, or the financial state of the
school other than creating an equilibrium between the ambitious and equip compared to the

unequipped and underachievers. Even the AP classes (supposedly the cream of the crop) are
required to take this test for evaluating the teachers and material. These individuals make up for
the peers that continue to allow gaps in their education and skills. The fact that the amount of
schools not passing the test has increased is data supporting the decrease in educational standards
as well as the change in mentality of every level of the educational system.
Instead of the students learning and discovering they are being spoon fed general
standards just to be parroted on to a bubble sheet to satisfy legislative requirements. The No
Child Left Behind Act has created a system based on minimum in America that has little real
results and in fact has lowered Americas national educational standards internationally. It is a
good idea for every person to be educated to some degree, but it has to be sought by the
individual for it to truly be a successful tool in their lives. By putting minimum standards you
take away the ability for schools to hold a maximum standard which results in wasted resources
and promoted mediocrity.

Works Cited
(1) "Background & Analysis." Background & Analysis. New America Foundation, 24 Apr. 2014.
Web. 05 Nov. 2014.
(2) "No Child Left Behind Act." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Apr. 2014. Web. 05 Nov.
2014.
(3) Strauss, Valerie. "Bill Clintons big Ideas for Education." Washington Post. The
Washington Post, 06 Sept. 2012. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.