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  • Essay / Segregation in Schools: The No Child Left Behind Act and Its Effects on Disadvantaged Children

    In American history, education has been an important issue for the future of the country. Over the years, the federal government has made improvements to education in schools to increase student success. In particular, the case Brown v. Board of Education proved that schools were not equal and violated the 14th Amendment. After this case, several education laws were passed, such as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The NCLB Act was passed to improve the education of all American children, especially disadvantaged children. NCLB has implemented new state and school required guidelines. According to research findings, the law improved the test scores of disadvantaged students, but it held the school accountable for their success. The No Child Left Behind Act improves education for disadvantaged students, but it violates the Fourteenth Amendment. It violates the amendment if schools close due to failure to meet state standards. The connection to class is Brown v. Board of Education's role in improving education for all children by ruling that the "separate but equal doctrine" negatively impacted black students. This also ties in with John Stuart Mill's argument that if there is harm, it should not be law. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayFirst, it is important to analyze the laws that impacted education from 1896 to 2000. In 1896, the Plessy v. Ferguson case launched the "Separate but Equal Doctrine." This case involved Homer Plessy, an African-American who refused to sit in the back of a train. From this case, the court struck down previous amendments regarding equal rights and protection for all people in America. After this decision, in 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education case questioned whether the doctrine provided equal resources and opportunities to minorities. In this case, the court found that black schools were inferior to white schools and overturned the previous decision regarding segregation in schools. Segregation was found to damage the mental state of black students. The court's past error of separating white and black children in schools would have detrimental effects on education. In the 1960s, President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the “War on Poverty” and the Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA). in 1965. This law provided increased financial aid for schools such as preschools for poor children. The law was found to provide equal resources for poor children to succeed. From this law, the government continued to improve the education of all children by passing three more laws in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For example, in 1968, the Bilingual Education Act required schools to offer programs to children who did not speak English. Before this law, if children did not speak English, they did not have equal opportunities to learn the curriculum and were left behind. Another law was that of President Richard Nixon who passed Title IX in 1972. This law stated that female students could not be discriminated against. Additionally, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1975 was passed to give students with disabilities the right to equal opportunity and the resources necessary to succeed. The ESEA Act provided resources for all students to succeed, but by the 1980s,the government realized that many American children were experiencing difficulties in reading, math, and comprehension, which carried over into their adult lives. During the 1980s, there was an educational crisis in American schools. President Ronald Reagan read a speech titled “A Nation in Danger” which was a report on the state of education in America. They found that America ranked last compared to industrialized countries, that 23 million Americans were illiterate in reading and writing, and that SAT scores declined from 1963 to 1980. The report provided the proof that the American school system was failing American children and that other countries had better school systems. The government decided that education needed to be reformed and made improvements to the Primary and Secondary Education Act. President Bill Clinton worked on education reform through the improved American School Act in 1994. This led President George Bush to pass the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002. In particular, The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was to make schools accountable for the success of their students. Based on the law's history of failing to account for disadvantaged students, this law focused on improving the academic success of children who were minorities, disabled, limited English proficient, and economically disadvantaged. To do this, the law required new guidelines for the state and schools to follow. The new directive was that schools had to test their students every year, once in grades three through eight and once in grades ten through twelve. Student test scores were to be sent to the state in a report titled Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). This report determined a school's ranking and whether it was rewarded or sanctioned. If a school met state standards, then it would receive more funding. On the other hand, if they failed, the school would be evaluated and could be closed. Therefore, this law gave states the freedom to set their educational guidelines. This reform, however, had positive and negative consequences for disadvantaged students. For example, Douglas Lauen and Michael Gaddis conducted a study to determine whether accountability pressure increased the test scores of disadvantaged students through NCLB. The study was conducted in North Carolina from 2000 to 2008. They studied 1.7 million students in 1,800 schools with students ranging from third to eighth grade. They found that test scores increased among students below grade level compared to students near or above grade level. They also saw an increase in poor and minority scores if they did not meet the standard the previous year. This proved that schools were focusing more on students below grade level and that this benefited disadvantaged students. It also proves that when schools are held accountable for the success of their students, the achievement of struggling students increases. In comparison, a study by Thomas Dee and Brian Jacob examined data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in math and reading. minorities in fourth and eighth grades. They found an increase in math scores for black and Hispanic students between 2000 and 2006. They also found that, compared to other countries, such as Australia and England, math scores improved. Like Lauen and Gaddis's study, they found that students below thegrade level had higher growth in mathematics than students above grade level. Students near or above grade level did not increase significantly compared to the lower level group. This also supports the assertion that the law was beneficial to all students. The data demonstrated that the achievement gap was narrowing between white and disadvantaged students. For example, fourth-grade Hispanic performance increased by nineteen percent compared to white students. This proves that the law significantly improves math achievement for disadvantaged students and enforces the Fourteen Amendments. However, there is little evidence of improved reading scores. For example, when compared to pre- and post-NCLB scores, the scores showed little or no significance in score changes. This shows that the law only benefited disadvantaged groups in terms of math scores and not reading scores. This proves that the law needs to be reformed because it does not contribute to improving results in both subjects. Since this law does not help increase reading scores, there are other disadvantages as well. Additionally, states set standards that each school had to meet to receive funding. However, it was found that most low-income schools called Title I did not meet standards and were penalized. The state had the power and freedom to close the school or fire administrators if the school failed to get students to meet standards. This has put a lot of pressure on school officials to be accountable for the success of their students. Due to problems with the law, the Obama administration passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015 to reduce the rate of school closures due to schools failing to meet student achievement standards. the state. Additionally, President Barrack Obama signed the Every Student Succeed Act. (ESSA) to fund low-income schools and improve educational outcomes. The law reformed NCLB by requiring states to support schools that were “in need of improvement” or that did not meet standards. Schools that “need improvement” were mostly low-income schools that failed to consistently meet the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report. Due to the No Child Left Behind Act, schools were increasingly closed. For example, before the passage of ESSA, Chicago closed forty-nine elementary schools between 2013 and 2014. Most of the schools that closed had a population of ninety percent African American students ( Kunichoff). Additionally, sixty percent of the closed schools had a high population of children with special needs. This shows that NCLB has had a negative impact on black and special needs children. When schools closed, children were transferred to other schools, but there was a shortage of teachers and resources to provide for all children. This means that the No Child Left Behind Act harmed disadvantaged students because it did not provide an equal education for all students. When it comes to class, Brown v. Board of Education argued that the “separate but equal” doctrine does not pertain to class. in education because school facilities were not equal. Segregated schools were found to violate the Fourteenth Amendment because black children exhibited psychological damage. The court overturned its previous decision and worked to repair the damage. The No Child Left Behind Act was passed to improve347483/.