Political Science

There are major disparities in the dedication to educate  and the  teaching techniques  demonstrated by school teachers and authorities across America, students are simply passed on to a higher grade by indifferent school authorities who  do not feel that it is necessary to educate a child and consequentially the majority of children from poorer zones cannot read and write. Most children do not have the necessary textbooks and resources required to learn and nor are their socio-economic situation conducive to the same (Hegrat, 2007).

The NCLB Act or No Child Left Behind Policy is an attempt made by the government to improve the educational standards in urban public schools by introducing measures and reforms that endeavor to raise the standard of education in our country by providing greater resources and funds to under sourced schools as well as introducing stricter rules of accountability that ensure that students actually learn something in class and have to pass a generic testing module that will be common to all schools all over USA(Brown,2007).

Savage Inequalities and the NCLB Act
Jonathan Kozol was a gifted teacher who toured the country, visiting schools and interviewing teachers and students in an attempt to understand the dichotomy which existed between students of Caucasian and African American races, as well as, between students belonging to poorer socio-economic backgrounds.  In his book Jonathan Kozol talks of how students lacked resources and textbooks even if they wanted to learn (Kozol, 2002).

Children dropped out because schools did not have the furniture or classrooms for students and teachers did not even care to make the effort to actually educate children, their socio economic backgrounds meant students were often too ill and in too much pain to learn. Some schools were situated in areas that were too noisy or not conducive to teaching i.e. Bronx (Kozol, 2002).

There was a clear demarcation between children from white families, who were better off and students from non white races who were comparatively poorer. A child from a poor economic situation was not allowed to learn in these affluent all white suburban schools and had to travel miles just to reach his public school, which was better suited to his economic situation (Hegrat, 2007).

The NCLB Act is the nations redress to the inequalities that exists in the current educational system. The legislation has clearly outlined directives on facilities, resources, a common grading system and new standards in accountability to ensure that every child in US gets an equal opportunity to an education.

(1) The Act also authorizes schools additional federal funding and resources if the current structure proves to be inadequate for the school to educate students in their institution. Thus a school can get more furniture, textbooks and can use creative resources to teach children from different backgrounds. Schools are undergoing major restructuring in terms of leadership, staffing and facilities (State schools are now giving extra tutoring classes to students who are in need of extra coaching and sub-groups are being identified who need more attention and support. Thus teaching modules are being tailored to suit their needs (CEP, 2006).

(2) Brown also commends the NCLB act on the accountability structure that has been developed which is based on the Adequate Yearly Progress report that ensures that a child has received some kind of education, ensuring that a genuine efforts are made to educate individual students as the performance of each school in a state will be evaluated according to this legislation (2007).It was found by CEP that the number of academic in-school tests had increased in relevant subjects ensuring that students performance could be evaluated and corrected periodically (CEP,2006).

CEP has also found that schools in poorer districts are now using creative methods of educating students to score better on their AYP and recognize the need for individual improvements in student performance, so that their schools performance also shows advancement (CEP, 2006).

 (3) The issue of inclusion among students with learning and physical disabilities The NCLB Act has strict stipulations when it came to disparity based on race, gender, ethnicity, income background if there are federally funded (Brown, 2007). The NCLB act also requires that special adjustments be made in testing systems for children with special needs and language problems.

Recognizing Challenges
A commission was established by the Congress to evaluate the effectiveness of this legislation and to make recommendations that would further enhance its effectiveness.

It was found that
Comparability Loophole-Teachers in public schools in higher incomes zones were given better salaries and were better qualified than teachers employed in poorer zone schools.

Brown bravely cites that the Legislation had still not addressed the issues of school choice and supplemental educational services and even recommends that facilities be maintained and environment ensures teacher mobility, safety and attendance.

Another criticism that Brown has made about the implementation of this Legislation is that individual students who are struggling to learn are not given adequate guidance under special education services. Brown also speaks about the lack of incentives and compensation for individual schools to improve their performance (Brown, 2007).

The CEP has also found that seventy percent of schools are neglecting other subjects in elementary schools in order to give more importance to reading and mathematics so that children score better on these subjects, which affects the schools performance according to the stipulations of the NCLB act (CEP, 2006).

CEP has also found that it would be unfair on students with disabilities or language problems to be included under the NCLB Act as they have limitations that need special attention and resources by the school authorities (CEP, 2006).

There have been complaints that state schools have had to absorb costs  for projects that should have been financed by federal funds(CEP,2006)

The commission according to Brown recommends that 10 percent of the schools in affluent locations make their seats available to students from low performance schools and inter-district choice of schools is made available to students who have free transportation (Brown, 2007). A switch was recommended which ensured the highly effective teachers would be employed by federally funded schools instead of highly educated teachers to ensure that children have a better opportunity to understand what was being taught in school (Brown, 2007).

Conclusion
The communities in general commend the achievements of NCLB as their children have learning standards and better instructors and programs are introduced into all schools that are federally and state funded (CEP, 2006). However Brown recommends the inclusion of supplementary programs in order to ensure that individual students attend school and are motivated to complete their graduation. The proposed legislations are Graduation Promise Act and Jobs for the Future that can be implemented along with the NCLB Act (Brown, 2007).