Introduction
Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was introduced by the U.S. Congress in December 2001. In spite of benefits and advantages expected by children, schools and the states, NCLB becomes a real problem for modern society and children, lower educational achievements and progress of students. The aims and goals of this Act, narrow performance based on accountability become the main threat for schools and educational establishments.
Discussion Section
Political issues
Child Left Behind Act reflects problems and troubles faced by single parent children, and proposes possible solutions and recommendations to improve service provisions and social support. President Obama is working toward the provision of more universal primary prevention types of services. These difficulties have many causes, some of which interact in complex ways. Obama claims that child welfare programs should be supported financially and shaped, in large part, by national, state, and local laws and regulations. The main limitation of this act is that test-based accountability systems and the accountability provisions in NCLB are ineffective and do not reflect real needs and educational goals of students. In his article, T. Rueter questions: “Who says that a standardized test is the only way to measure student achievement? What about portfolios, exhibitions, essays, student-initiated projects, and teacher evaluations?” (2005). In the first part of the speech, Obama proposes critical overview of child welfare and its historical development in the USA and Canada. Obama claims that the best solution for child welfare is long-term structural policies. Obama gives a special attention to changing values and traditions of the American family and transformations affected the system of welfare. Also, Obama unveils that the problem of child abuse is one of the most difficult and complicated for child services because it is difficult to identify the problem and protect a child from inequalities in education.
The president’s proposal to Congress, released Saturday, would place more importance on academic growth than the current pass-fail approach to judging schools. If a student were to start class work three grade levels behind and move up two by the end of the school year, that would count as a victory. Now, it is rated a failure because the student is still behind (Anderson, 2010).
School Finance Issues
Obama pays a special attention to analysis of economic conditions of the American family, wealth and poverty, and inadequate solutions employed by the agencies. Obama claims that child welfare system should support more family-focused approaches to child protection to preserve families and achieve permanency planning wherever possible. Thus, Obama notes that none of these laws is static. They are constantly changing through a process of regulatory review at the federal and state levels. Moreover, their actual implementation depends in many cases on the efforts of trained social workers who interpret, enforce, and carry out the legislative or judicial intent. He proposes to establish a Universal Child Support Collection and a Child’s Future Security Account. Obama claims that the crisis in welfare services is caused by inadequate policies and programs developed for welfare services. The most important, Obama proposes to involve criminal justice system and report all cases of child abuse to police. Only in this case, it would be possible to protect children from racisl discrimination at schools. Also, Obama states that the child welfare system should be transformed into a protective agency for children. The underlining assumptions are that historical development of the policies do not meet modern family structure and family values, and should be changed (Anderson, 2010).
It is possible to say that the new approach is objective because it is based on historical data and statistical results, personal opinion of social workers and real life examples. Child Left Behind Act is scientifically based. In the speech, principles that are supported by empirical literature are highlighted, and current program challenges are discussed (“A Blue Print for Reform”, 2010). I agree with Obama that a “child-centered” approach to public policy rests squarely on the notion of partnership between professionals and families, as well as on the realization that each of us, save for the accident of life circumstances, remains but a half-step away from the service system:.
A common complaint of No Child Left Behind is that it labels too many schools as simply failing. The new proposal sets forth a multitiered system: One tier would identify the 5 percent of schools struggling the most in each state, while other tiers would apply to schools facing less-severe challenges. Different remedies are outlined for different tiers in the blueprint (Douglass, 2010).
But it is possible to say that high-quality education programs in the traditional sense are insufficient for meeting the needs of families in America. Yet the service needs of a considerable number of families in the United States demand that child welfare and other professionals implement well-designed programs that will be sufficiently powerful to address these serious social problems. To be most effective, these interventions should be based on a well-conceptualized theoretical model of what factors contribute to the maltreatment. I disagree with the author that all the services are inefficient because of inadequate structure and lack of criminal responsibility for parents. In many cases, it is difficult for social workers to identify, detect and prove the case of child abuse and neglect. Also, lack of funding and qualified professionals is still one of the main problems in this sphere (“A Blue Print for Reform”, 2010).
Real World Setting
The aim of the Obama’s program is to attract attention of child welfare processionals and state authorities to the problem of child abuse and drawbacks of child welfare system. The intended audience involves social workers and local authorities, parents and police. This approach to education gives a food for thought and proposes a unique approach to improvements and an innovative vision of the child welfare. This new approach should be read by social workers and legislators, students who study sociology, psychology and social work. Then there is the matter of test scoring. Millions of students in at least 20 states had been affected by errors in scoring standardized proficiency tests, and concluded (Douglass, 2010), The problem is that “annual high-stakes testing impedes learning. It produces rote memorization and a “drill and grill” curriculum. Between pre-testing and the actual testing, students may be involved in 3 to 4 weeks of test-related activities distinct from normal instruction” (Rueter 2005). is ineffective and even dangerous for modern education and students. It deprives many low class students a chance to compete with middle and upper class students. Narrow performance based on accountability, testing and restricted curriculum are the main threats created by NCLB.
The new approach to education shows that modern day reality demands effective and qualitative education as a core of any profession as it gives future private and public employees a chance to master knowledge and skills crucial for effective performance. Education is important because it supplies future managers and administrator which knowledge and innovative ideas, practical examples and analytical skills. Workplaces structure and routinely provide learning experiences as part of everyday work activities and through guidance from other workers. Thus, it does not provide managers with theories and innovative ideas applicable in modern organizations. Programs for children would help parents to grow and arouse skills and learning potential (Douglass, 2010), Presenting problems in children take various forms, ranging from the desire for baseline assessments to concerns regarding deterioration in academic performance to assessments for the purpose of satisfying criteria for gifted program placement. Whatever the reason for referral, a thorough understanding of the referral question or current complaint is vital for steering the direction of the neuropsychological assessment, recommendations, potential treatment, and follow-up. Special needs children are also most often identified during the preschool years because they go under developmental expectations. In infancy, precocious development of language or reading skills is an important marker in the identification of gifted children. Although children have been thought to be at risk for adjustment problems, some work indicates that this is not necessarily the case. Parents should know that young gifted children often have higher self-esteem and more energy, enthusiasm, and curiosity than average children. Programs for all social classes will help to assess the potential of a child and the main areas of interest (“Obama Administration”, 2010),
The new approach to Child Left Behind Act should be based on new reality and involve interprofessional approach (“Opportunities for Schools in Need of Improvement”, n.d.). Educators, psychologists and psychiatrists show a general consensus that programs for the gifted should be an integral part of the development in infancy, although a trend away from enrichment in the regular classroom as the primary way of meeting the needs of students is evident. Instead, acceleration, mentoring, self-directed and independent study, individual education plans for infants, special programs for gifted, Saturday and summer programs, and community-based programs have become important today. In addition, an enormous amount of instructional material is created for use with gifted students. More recently, there also has been an interest in the role of mentors, role models, and heroes in the education of gifted high school students. In contrast to these earlier developments, there is now a growing movement to disband such programs, and instead of calling for more of the existing programs. Infancy is a unique period of development when parents should not waste time and wait for further school education.
Conclusion
The new approach to Child Left Behind is a result of political and social changes. Obama underlines that a student development can be viewed as progressing along two different dimensions: commitment and crisis. Learning and educational concerns are reflected most acutely in early school and adolescent stages. It is during infancy age that the child is faced with developing a sense of uniqueness and the capacity to derive satisfaction from learning. Special programs for children will help to assess a potential for further academic achievement, intelligence, language facility, cognitive processing, and adaptive behavior. The special tests for gifted infants are not limited to individually administered tests but are used to qualify students for education placement. Students should not waste time and be given a chance to develop his personality and help him/her to become a gifted and unique individual in further life. Special programs and professional teachers will help you to assess and evaluate potential of a child and develop state-of-the-art programs for every small student.
References
Anderson, N. (2010). Obama: Revise No Child Left Behind law. The Washington Post. Web.
A Blue Print for Reform. US Department of Education. (2010). Web.
Douglass, N. (2010). No Child Left Behind overhaul: five key things that would change. Web.
Obama Administration Looks to Overhaul No Child Left Behind. (2010). PBS Newshour. Web.
Opportunities for Schools in Need of Improvement. (N.d.) 2010. Web.
Rueter, T. (2005). “Disastrous” No Child Left Behind Act Should be Repealed. Web.