Are children left behind?

                                                        This photo belongs to The Vineyard Gazette

Many are familiar with the No Child Left Behind Act that George W. Bush proposed in 2001. The Act sets high standards for students and makes all schools give assessment tests in order to receive funding from the government. The standards are set by state which probably makes the goals a little harder to reach since the state will look into the schools a little deeper. 


More than 24 billion dollars has been used for funding since 2001. That is a 40.1% increase over the years which shows that children are actually meeting the standards. This is in fact true, studies show nine year olds with the highest scores since 1971 and improvements between African American, Hispanic, and white children. The gap between them has significantly sealed.


I recently came across an editorial on this subject, and the anonymous author went on a rant about how the federal government was taking advantage of this act by using a so-called "crude and uneven measure" to judge. He argues that the measures they would take actually left children behind and weren't very proficient. 


I do have to agree with him in a way because as I was doing my research, I saw that schools in the Los Angeles Unified District did not take into consideration the standardized tests where student slipped and slid over the years. If they looked into these scores, they would see that children were doing very well since the district keeps every record of this. It is very important that all schools keep this data so they can use it when arguing a case against the government.


The author argues that schools should be judged by how much growth is seen and not by how proficient each individual is. I think it should be equally looked at. The government can't go around giving money to schools just because they get bigger. That's a common thing that happens in California because there are so many people here. I know that bigger schools need more money but maybe money isn't their issue. I do think the government needs to put a cap on how many students are allowed at each school because there is an overpopulation issue not only in schools but in Los Angeles. 


The author also mentioned that schools don't get enough recognition for raising low level academic students to higher but come on now this is the federal government! They don't care what specifically you're doing or the schools are doing they just want to make sure their money is going to the right people who will use it the right way. I don't think you should plan on them looking at the great things the school does for the students. They want the facts, they want the numbers, they want to see improvement, more importantly they want to see where there money will be spent.