NCLB Act Strengths and Weaknesses

I can honestly state that I believe the No Child Left Behind Act does not work at all.  During the last class, I found out that many of the individuals in my group completely agreed with my stance on the Act.  There are some areas of the Act that can work once some modifications are done to it.  For example, it is very important to identify the schools that are in need of improvement, but standardized tests are not the best way to identify them.  Standardized tests are actually one of the biggest weaknesses that make this Act hated by most of the educators in America.  The Department of Education should get together and find a new way to identify these schools in need of assistance.  I also agree that it is important for the State and District to devote “additional attention and resources including funds for supplemental services” to help improve student achievement.  This should be worked on more intensely because there are many schools that are not getting the proper funding to create programs that can improve the success of the students.  It is also very important for the government to understand that they should assist in paying for the tutoring of children with low performance levels.  The schools and teachers are wrongfully accused for the low performance of these students but they are not given government assistance to increase it.  Finally, one of the strengths of the Act that actually hits close to home is the ability to provide an equal educational opportunity for low-income students.  I personally understand the truth between the discrepancies in the educational programs between low-income, middle-income, and high-income neighborhoods.  Something that ties closely to that portion of the Act its request to close the achievement gaps between these groups of students.  Like I stated before, the only way to do this is to minimize the discrepancies between various economic classes.  Hopefully President Obama and his Department of Education will work diligently to fix the poorly organized NCLB Act.