Chapter Review and Critique

Involve the Children : Revising the NCLB Policy

The article NCLB and Democracy ' by Deborah Meier gives a different perspective of the NCLB Policy . While existing literatures (Greatschools on this suggest a comprehensive and progressive achievement by its advocates , Meier lays down its weaknesses , and claims that it does not promote the benefit of the children , rather undermine their academic and personal progress

The No Child Left Behind Policy was borne out of the motive of promoting quality education for every child in the United States . In line with it , educational researchers

claim that it reaches out to every child despite multicultural background and academic performance However , Meier presents a different account of the policy , stating that it only leaves behind more children by the policies it has set to improve the performance of schools

Meier reports that the NCLB sets standardized tests and other criteria to assess overall school performance . These standards have been made by bureaucrats who might have come from elite schools , and not from common public schools with average or socio-economically poor students Standards , once they have been set , have to be achieved no matter what the cost . In this sense , schools are forced to keep up with the curriculum being dictated by the school boards , thus leaving behind the specific needs of every child in some poor states

Standardized curriculum also defeats the purpose of giving priority to each student . Because educators from high-performing schools are the ones who set them up , they do not represent the level of some inner state schools which may have lower levels of academic ability . On the one hand , setting up standards may help every school to achieve and perform highly , but on the other hand , these standards may have a negative effect of low-performing schools

By trying to pull up low-performing schools to some academic standards the NCLB worsens the situation by making the schools exert much efforts they could not maintain , and because they cannot meet the set standards these schools remain at the bottom line in the allocation of state school budget

Aside from the worsening academic scenario , the NCLB Policy pushes individual students to become products of the consumerist world . The criteria to make each student conscious of achieving their best intellectually , and meeting the global standards have set their minds to responding to the needs of the world . Consequently , this gives them a mindset of neglecting their own needs as persons

Looking at real academic scenarios , we may note that schools focus more on developing students ' knowledge and skills , without much consideration on their emotional aspects , such as how they should handle difficult situations they would encounter in life . Moreover , lessons in college deal with how students should perform in the corporate world , and not on how each could develop patience and service - the values one can rely on to remain in one 's job

Overall , Meier emphasizes that the implementers of NCLB have devised ways which only leave behind many children who cannot...