No Child Left Behind Act
Step One: Recognizing the problem/ Setting the agenda.
George Bush was working to solve the problems with education before he was ever president. He worked while he was the governor of Texas to improve their schools. When he became president he began to push for an act that would solve the problems with our schools. He felt that children were not given equal opportunities and wanted to make sure all teachers met proper qualifications for the subjects they were teaching. He also felt that children had to be in safe environments to be ale to reach full potential.
Step Two: Formulating the policy.
The No Child Left Behind Act was made to reform education by setting high standards and establishing measurable goals. The legislation was coauthored by Representatives John Boehner, George Miller, and Senators Edward Kennedy and Gregg Judd. They created a bill that required schools to give annual test to measure student progress and to make sure they were meeting requirements set by the government.
Step 3: Adopting the policy.
NCLB was proposed to congress on January 23rd, 2001.The House of Representatives voted 384-45 and the Senate voted 91-8 both in favor of the bill. the No child left Behind law was passed and signed into effect by George W. bush and co-signer George Miller on January 8, 2002. This law is a social regulatory policy.
Step 4: Implementing the policy.
The NCLB requires states to test students in reading and math annually. Schools are required to make the overall test scores public as well as groups like students with disabilities and low income students. Schools are also required to make improvements in scores every year towards the goal in 2014 and the rate that schools must improve at is chosen by the state they are in. The people that make sure schools meet these requirements are The State Board of Education and Department of Education. Schools are classified as "in need of improvement" if they fail to reach there goals two or more years in a row. with ach year that a school fails to reach goals they get worse and worse punishments. The Graph below shows the goal for schools improvement in Illinois.
Step 5: Evaluating the policy.
Test scores have been improving across the nation since NCLB started but there are problems that have shown. One example is that the rude for teachers meeting proper requirements has not made a difference to test scores. Another thing is the federal government has consistently failed to provide the amount of funding the program requires. It is also criticized because it is based off of multiple choice and critic say that its just teaching kids to memorize answers not actually learn the material. Another pro of the policy is that the gap between test score in white and minority students gotten smaller, as well as the gap between wealthy and poor students. Overall the policy was a good idea but it did not work as well as it could have.
Citations
"No Child Left Behind Act (2002)." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
"No Child Left Behind Act." American Government. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.
Antle, James. "Leaving No Child Left Behind." The American Conservative 1 Aug. 2005. Web. 17 Nov. 2014