User:AleutianTea/Educational inequality in the United States

Plan: While this article has an abundance of information, I will concentrate my efforts on the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). I will cite the first sentence. Also, when I checked the citation for the second sentence, the page was not found -- so I am hoping to add a citation that works. I will also try to expand it.

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Note: I bolded my additions after adding it to the mainspace in order to keep track of what I added.

No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 '(ESEA) which aimed to improve the education of "disadvantaged" students through monetary aid, known as "Title 1 money"''. ''' Signed in 2001 by President Bush, NCLB sought to create a more inclusive, responsive, and fair education system by ensuring that there is accountability, flexibility, and increased federal support for schools. NCLB emphasized the educational needs of minorities, the poor, ELL and "special education" students.  Some of the criticisms NCLB has received include that its curriculum overemphasizes math and reading, restricts teaching and devalues creativity, and fixates on improving test scores instead of the educational system. 

'NCLB uses test scores from mathematics and reading to determine whether the achievement gap has shrunk.  The reliance on standardized tests may not illustrate the child's holistic progress and achievement. Furthermore, these tests are used to determine whether a school meets "adequate yearly progress" (AYP). Penalties are administered to schools who fail to meet AYP, an approach known as "test and punish". Such penalties may include the loss of Title 1 funding, the school's closure, the "restructuring of the entire system", the school's conversion into a charter school, the provision of free tutoring, and/or permitting students "to transfer to a better-performing public school in the same district".  While some of NCLB's sanctions have been shown not to work, the forced "restructuring [of] leadership" has proven beneficial to a school's improvement. '

Another NCLB provision was the hiring of "highly qualified" individuals. This required teachers to have a Bachelor's degree and a state-specific teaching credential. Some argue that such requirements overemphasize a mastery of "subject matter" while underemphasizing interpersonal skills, such as introspection. Despite NCLB's goal of reaching disadvantaged students, "highly qualified" teachers often end up at wealthier schools due to better pay.