No Child Left Behind Act

is a Education centric issue
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Do you support No Child Left Behind Act? Yes | No

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has sought to elevate the performance of American schools and student with federal oversight and strict penalties for poor performance and as such has been both attacked and backed by various groups.

Background

  • Passed by the House of Representatives on May 23, 2001 and signed by President Bush on January 8, 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)(Source: Full Text of Act) has sought to impose federal standards on primary and secondary education.
  • No Child Left Behind (NCLB) emphasizes standardized testing to measure improvements in reading, math and the sciences. It consists of four general principles: teacher quality, student testing, scientifically based research and public school choice.

Debate

  • Support for NCLB highlights improvements in accountability in public education, greater educational options to parents for their children, and the shrinking achievement gap between minority and white students. The Department of Education cites the National Assessment of Educational Progress results as a significant increase in performance since 2001.(Source: ed.gov)
  • Critics, however, point to various disappointments. While federal money is flowing into state and local schools, state government has been forced to make severe cuts. Manipulation of standardized testing is a major concern as well, with districts exempting low performing students from testing so as to keep the image of progress in order to keep the checks coming. Still others show disappointment at the destruction of creativity through bureaucratic multiple choice testing, presence of government funded faith-based groups in the schools and the requirement that student information be passed on to military recruiters.

Recent Legislation

  • The NCLB Act is up for reauthorization in 2007. Many revisions have been proposed by Republican Congressmen wanting to give more power back to the states. Only time will tell if the government has bubbled in the correct answer.


Where do the major players stand on this Issue?

Stance Person Profession
Michael Bloomberg (I) NYC Mayor
Joe Biden (D) Senator & 2008 Democratic Superdelegate
Sam Brownback (R) Senator
Hillary Clinton (D) Senator & Former First Lady
John Clayton Cox (R) Author & Politician
Chris Dodd (D) Senator & 2008 Democratic Superdelegate
John Edwards (D) Attorney and Former Presidential Candidate
Rudy Giuliani (R) Fmr. NYC Mayor
Mike Gravel Fmr. Alaskan Senator
Mike Huckabee (R) Fmr. Governor & Minister
Duncan Hunter (R) Congressman
Dennis Kucinich (D) Congressman
Ron Paul (R) Congressman and Physician
Bill Richardson (D) Governor
Mitt Romney (R) CEO & Former Governor
Tom Tancredo (R) U.S. Representative
Tommy Thompson (R) Former Wisconsin governor and Secretary of Health and Human Serivces
Barack Obama (D) Senator and Presidential Candidate
Fred Thompson (R) Presidential Candidate, Lawyer, Lobbyist, Actor, and Former Senator
George W. Bush (R) President of the United States

Where do the major groups stand on this Issue?

Stance Group
Committee on Economic Development

No Child Left Behind Act Forum


Topic (jump to last post >>) Last Post Forum Posts
NCLB? Yeah, right >>
started by avicoh1, views since Feb 16, 2008
ronaldvandevender >>
Updated 9 days, 2 hours, 40 minutes ago
No Child Left Behind Act
8
I created my own massive idea to fix thew educational system >>
started by richardginn, views since Oct 12, 2007
ronaldvandevender >>
Updated 17 days, 3 hours, 54 minutes ago
No Child Left Behind Act
14