Written for:
Old Dominion University
Language Acquisition and Diverse Learning Needs (TLED 568)
There are both positive and negative effects of NCLB. The greatest point of NCLB is that it requires accountability at all levels. It will decrease the availability of teachers while retaining the capable and inclined for the most part. Students are prepared for high stakes testing, but critical thinking skills may not always be taught. Accountability is the best of these three impacts…
Many people argue about NCLB, but few can argue about the fact that it increases accountability. Every person is held accountable from the Department of Education down to the student. It accomplishes this by litigation covering thorough consequences that are supported and reinforced. Accountability will make the available teachers improve; however, not all people respond positively to accountability.
Some teachers may not want the extra headache of all of the extra paperwork. In fact, there are some schools that start off tough because of poverty and other issues. NCLB offers some incentives, but it is never enough. Some schools may even shut down because of the lack of monetary resources and investment. Wasn’t there a school that fired all of their teachers? On a positive note, good and bad teachers may leave, but at least the inclined teachers that are capable of maintaining standards will still be around. Schools don’t need every teacher to be great though because there needs to be average teachers as well; however, a poor teacher anywhere is just like a bad employee, for it is unacceptable.
Unfortunately, poor teachers are very probable in this situation. Every system produces people that learn to manipulate it and meet standards because human error always exists. NCLB uses high stakes testing as a standard. Testing is not a good measure of a student’s capability. Some people simply can’t test. Some teachers may forgo critical thinking skills and opt to go to the NCLB standards listing and just teach to the test. It gets results, but do you want a student that knows the answer to a test or one that can apply the answer. In the military, coworkers that tested poorly did the job well and taught well because they understood it. Those that tested well did not always understand the overall concept, but they made grade so they knew the answers.
It is hard to say the absolute impact of NCLB. NCLB will continue to increase accountability though. For the most part, it will increase teachers that are both capable and inclined to teach. Sadly though, it will produce teachers that are more focused on meeting the standards of testing than actually allowing students to learn and enhance their critical thinking skills. NCLB, like any other program, depends on how it is received, interpreted, and applied. It is only a beginning though because increased accountability is great with the problems that have been happening. There still needs to be a greater focus on critical thinking and not just reactionary skills, decoding ability, and comprehension. A computer can do all of these things, but only a man can critically think. I personally know this from my experiences with fighting computers in strategy games and always winning no matter the difficulty. It is my ability to critically think that gives me victory in these games. It is this ability that separates man from other creatures as well. Every man wants to know the answer to why, and each person wants to know how to apply what is learned. No one just wants the answer, yet everyone wants to pass the test that is required. What is the priority and where is the balance?
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