Are Children Really NOT Left Behind?

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, was passed by former President George Bush in 2005. Initially, the act was proposed and passed as an attempt to improve the reading, language arts, and mathematics skills of low performance students. According to the Department of Education, the act encourages teachers, parents, and communities to become more involved to ensure the success of the students. In addition to that, NCLB uses public tax money to create literacy programs for the students. But just as any other policy, NCLB has both positive and negative aspects. While it focuses on teachers providing intervention based on the low performance of an individual student, it also holds the teacher accountable if the student's skills and test scores do not improve.This is the particular aspect in which I am concerned about. Though some people believe that NCLB is effective, many disagree. I believe that in a way, the act encourages the teacher to merely pass a student rather than actually helping them to pass on their own. According to the policy, the teacher's role is to provide individual help or intervene in some type of way. Now, if there are 30 students in a classroom and four of them are performing at a lower level, how can a teacher solely focus on those four without teaching the entire class? Frankly, this will distract the others from the learning process. In my opinion, it depends on the low performing student and the amount of effort that he or she is willing to put into learning, because often times it is not the teacher's fault. I will use myself as an example. During middle and high school, I never liked math. Though I was an honor student, I entered mathematics class every year with an attitude that I hated it and as long as I earned an A in every other class and at least a C in math, that was okay with me. I carried this attitude up until the 10th grade when I scored advanced on every part of the Gateway except math. After failing that particular portion, my mathematics teacher suggested that I stay after school for the Gateway tutoring program. I went to about two or three sessions and did not return. It was not until I failed the math portion a second time that I decided to help myself because I knew that if I did not pass it, I would not receive my diploma. I sought help from a family friend who is a mathematics teacher and received one on one, step by step tutoring from her. I took the test for the third time during my Junior year and scored advanced; every since, I have had a positive attitude towards learning. Point being, teachers had tried to help me, but I did not get the help until I truly realized that I did not want to be left behind due to my poor math skills. Another case where I believe that the policy was more harmful than helpful was during a time when my language arts teacher got into major trouble because she failed a large number of her students. In actuality though, the students who failed deserved to. They rarely came to class and whenever they did, it was not to learn. The students would sleep and play in class, then if the teacher addressed them, they would be disrespectful towards her. With that being said, if the students do not do the required work, how could the teacher be at fault? The following year she was my language arts teacher again and our class consisted of many "class clowns" who completed few of the assignments. However, instead of failing them, she explained that she would "give" them a D in order for them to be able to go to summer school an graduate from there; she did not want her job to be in jeopardy again. In addition to this, there is a young man who I have tutored in the past. He is now in the 10th grade and can barely read at a 7th grade level. If he was not being passed along by his teachers, he would probably still be an 8th grade student today. Surely his true skills are going to show when he has to take the Gateway soon. I have witnessed way too many situations in which the No Child Left Behind Act has been less effective than it was intended to be. While the intentions were meant to be for the good of the students, that is not always the case. According to nochildleft.com, "NCLB has a narrow focus upon math and reading test scores and is a dangerous experiment that threatens the education of millions of children." It goes on to say that hidden within the NCLB policy, are "dozens of changes that are untested, unproven, and laced with political motives that could do great damage to public education." In reality, students really are being left behind and it will only hurt them in the long run.