Seven years after it was put into place, many loopholes and serious flaws came to light. Some of those flaws include:

· Gaming the System: some states set low standards so they can easily meet them and receive the federal funding, where as other states that are doing just as well are being punished because their standards were set higher. There is no national standard.

· Teaching to the Test: In most cases, rather than manipulating test results, teachers will teach a narrow subset of skills that will increase test performance rather than focus on deeper understanding.

· Segregation of Students: The No Child Left Behind Act allows a school to choose one percent of its population that does not have to meet the state tests. It is called the “One percent law” and most schools choose their most disabled and language-challenged students to be exempt which removes incentive to spend resources on them.

· Class Overcrowding: While parents have the freedom to move there children from a failing school to a more successful one, it does not help schools accommodate their rising populations but penalizes them for exceeding class size caps.

How did this all happen? The No Child Left Behind Act was the culmination of half a century’s work to federally fund education while still allowing states to have control over curriculum. Lyndon B. Johnson initiated the Great Society domestic programs which were an attempt to eliminate racial inequality and poverty. One of its main focuses was education. They were never able to follow through completely and its time as a priority fizzled out. By the 1980’s and 1990’s, with the United States’ graduation rates an embarrassment in the world, an interest in the federal government getting more involved in American students’ education began to develop once more. There was an amazing bi-partisan effort to bring quality education to students of all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds and shorten the achievement gaps between them and Caucasian students from wealthy communities. George W. Bush came into office in with No Child Left Behind at the top of his agenda. It was met with a lot of initial optimism, but within a few years, problems began to surface and hardworking schools were being punished for not meeting proficiency levels. With the current economic downturn and so many schools facing serious, crippling budget shortfalls, the importance of the No Child Left Behind Act has been called into question by the newly-elected Obama administration.

As of now, there are very few people, (none that I could find), that believe that the No Child Left Behind Act should remain as it is or believe it is perfect. Most, that do not believe that the No Child Left Behind Act should completely abolished or reformed, believe that it just needs a little tweaking. Former director of the United States’ department of education, Margaret Spelling, believes it is “99% pure”.

A majority of people do believe it should either be reformed or abolished. Those that hope to reform it want schools to be rewarded based on progress rather than arbitrary efficiency goals. All schools are different and they are always dealing with special circumstances that can’t be assessed in a uniform way. The Obama Administration has expressed a hope to test students in ways that assess their readiness for work and college, rather than just test reading and math. It also plans to start all kids from depressed areas off in the right direction by providing income-based grants for pre-school education. The other side of the opposition feels that tracking and testing the students is a waste of money and time because children don’t learn in static ways that can be accurately assessed in a standardized way. Others feel that the assessments can only truly track a student’s progress if they are created on an individual basis because standardized ones ignore disabled and English language Learner (ELL) student’s needs as well as gifted and talented students whose intelligences can not be simply determined by a test of reading and math.

So, should the government reform the No Child Left Behind Act? No. It should abandon the No Child Left Behind Act. A year or two ago, when times were not quite as desperate, I would say that it was worth being reformed. Now, when so many schools are desperately trying to stay open due to budget shortfalls, holding them responsible to reach proficiency levels so as to punish them for not meeting them seems like it should be very low on the priority. These tests really don’t take into account the different ways in which students learn and they don’t take into account the diverse situations and experiences students come from. They can’t even take into account that a child has a disability or has come from a completely different language. There are so many ways that states and schools can raise test scores while not improving education. The tests are arbitrary and they create a false picture.

Those that oppose abolishment or reform argue that test scores have risen significantly since the Act has become law; however, test scores rising can be (but are not always) a result of teaching to the test and manipulating scores. They can argue that it has brought attention to minority education, but it has done only that. California, which has an extremely large minority population in all its schools, is suffering the most. The schools that have minorities making progress are still not meeting proficiency standards and they are a ticking time-bomb. The most overwhelming argument against reformation is not an argument but a question. “How can we afford to reform?” or “How DO we reform?” Just because we don’t know how to reform it or abandon it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do either and it doesn’t mean that we should let things carry on the way they have been because we might be in for an unpleasant future.

Links to Source Notes:

*1-Academic-Enhancing No Child Left Behind – School Mental Health Connections

*2-Journalistic-Evaluating ‘No Child Left Behind’

*3-Academic-Comparisons Between Talent Search Students Qualifying via Scores on Standardized Tests and via Parent Nomination.

*4-Journalistic-What No Child Left Behind Left Behind

5-Institutional-Mapping Oregon’s Educational Progress 2008

6-Institutional-The Agenda – Education

7-Institutional-PTA Position Overview for the Upcoming ESEA –NCLB Reauthorization

8-Institutional-After school and No Child Left Behind Reauthorization

9-Institutional-The American Federation of Teachers on No Child Left Behind

10-Academic-Robbing Elementary Students of Their Childhood: The Perils of No Child Left Behind

11-Academic-How Tracking Creates a Poverty of Learning

12-Academic-Tearing Down The Gates: Confronting the Class Divide in American Education

13-Journalistic-No Child Left Behind Changes Oregon Education

14-Journalistic-How to Fix No Child Left Behind

15-Journalistic-Principals Say No Child Left Behind is Unattainable

16-Journalistic-Beyond Jobs: Obama Wants Stimulus to Reform Schools

17-Journalistic-Improving On No Child left Behind (Multimedia)

18-Journalistic-Impact of No Child Left Behind is Debatable (Multimedia)

19-Journalistic-Schools Say Stimulus Package is Too Late (Multimedia)

20-Journalistic-Seven Years In, No Child Left Behind Gets Poor Marks (Multimedia)

21-Journalistic-Gender Gap Theory Doesn’t Add Up (Multimedia)

22-Citizen-Interview with Lois Molyneux

23-Citizen-Interview with Tera Hoffman

24-Citizen-Interview with Margaret Lillie

25-Citizen-Teaching to the Test (Blog)

26-Citizen-The Future of Education-One Teacher’s Prediction (Blog)

27-Journalistic-GAO: Loss of Arts Education Higher in Some Kinds of Schools (Blog)

28-Journalistic-Daniel Shanken (Photo)

29-Journalistic-Kathy Willens (Photo)

30-Journalistic-Benjamin Sklar (Photo)

31-Journalistic-J. Scott Applewhite (Photo)

32-Journalistic-The Impact of No Child Left Behind (Photo/Graphic)

33-Journalistic-No Child Left Behind Leaves No Room for Some

**Extra Source Notes:

34-Journalistic-For Some Schools, the Question is: What to Cut?

35-Institutional-A Diminished Vision of Civil Rights

36-Journalistic-Study: No Child Left Behind Rule Looser in Minnesota

Summary: John Yinger, the author of Helping Children Left Behind State Aid and The Pursuit of Educational Equity, points out one of the No Child Left Behind’s weaknesses. The gaps between states when it comes to initial proficiency levels and goals creates an uneven playing field for the nations students, teachers, and schools.

Topic: Should the government reform the No Child Left Behind Act
Category: Journalistic

What is it? An online video of a recitation.
Publication Information: Youtube.com;November 14, 2008
Author: John Yinger
Location: The video can be found here.
Accessed: March 8, 2009

Support:

Helping Children Left Behind State Aid and The Pursuit of Educational Equity by John Yinger.

Helping Children Left Behind State Aid and The Pursuit of Educational Equity is the book which Yinger wrote on the No Child left Behind Act. The book includes an in depth study of the country’s different education systems and their level of quality. It also looks at their proficiency goals for the 2014 deadline.

Audience and Agenda:

John Yinger is Trustee Professor of Public Administration and Economics and the director of Education Finance and Accountability Program. Education Finance and Accountability Program is a program that “which promotes research, education, and debate about fundamental issues in the elementary and secondary school system in the U.S.” He served as senior staff economist in the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, and taught at Harvard University and the University of Michigan. Yinger earned his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1974. There is no reason to suspect that his expressed views and the information gathered by his study for his bool are influenced by any commercial or political interests other than his own pursuit of statistical information.

Usefulness:

This article is useful because it shows how unrealistic most of the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act are. He talks about the gaps between states when it comes to initial proficiency levels and proficiency goals. California, which has one of the lowest initial proficiency levels, has set one the highest proficiency level goals by 2014. Statistically speaking, the chances of California meeting those goals are slim to none. It shows extreme carelessness in the No Child Left Behind Act to allow states to make their own goals and tests and punishing them equally when they do not meet them. On the other side, states that had high initial proficiency levels and low proficiency goals for the 2014 will not be in trouble but it doesn’t really mean that they have accomplished something. It is unfair. If the no Child Left Behind Act is to equally reward in punish then it should test equally as well.

Works cited:

http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/jyinger/

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2164339.Helping_Children_Left_Behind_State_Aid_and_the_Pursuit_of_Educational_Equity

Summary: Tera Hoffman, a University of Oregon Career Counselor, says that the No Child Left Behind Act Leaves disabled children behind. It reinforces discrimination by allowing schools to ignore their most developmentally disabled students with the 1% law.

Topic: Should the government reform the No Child Left Behind Act?
Category: Citizen Interview

What is it? An interview with Tera Hoffman

Support:

Tera Hoffman earned a B.S. in Public Health and an M.S. in Community Counseling. I have worked with many diverse groups of people and spent nine years on the faculty in Special Education at Portland State University. I am currently working on my doctorate in Counseling Psychology. She has been involved in numerous research studies focusing on functional living skills for students with disabilities. She has collaborated with the Oregon Department of Education and colleagues at Portland State University for the last seven years to develop and implement the Extended CLRAS for the Oregon Statewide Assessment.

Audience and Agenda:

Tera Hoffman is clearly in favor of reforming the No Child Left Behind Act and has written material for school districts to use as an alternative means of assessing disabled children. There is no reason to suspect that her expressed views are influenced by any commercial or political interests other than her own.

Usefulness:

The most disastrous part of the No Child Left Behind Act is the 1% law. Schools are allowed to choose 1% of its population that will be exempt from being tested. Schools almost always choose the most severely disabled students to be exempt. This exemption allows the schools to avoid allocating precious resources (time and money) toward the development of their disabled students. Hoffman says that “This reinforces built in discrimination.” It treats disabled students like 2nd class citizens. They are unequal in the eyes of the federal government and that is inappropriate. She says it can sometimes be a catch 22. It is unfair to expect developmentally disabled students to do well on standardized tests that average students can find difficult and challenging yet taking those disabled children out of the equation creates an environment where their needs are no longer a priority. Hoffman developed an alternative means of assessing developmentally disabled students for the Oregon Department of Education at Portland State University. It bases testing around instruction, not the other way around and tests them on individual goals made. An example would be, for some students, asking for help or using the restroom on their own. Only when individual progress is measured can schools be given proper credit for educating their students. That means that the No Child Left Behind Act must be reformed because its means of measuring a schools effort and success at educating students is dysfunctional.

Works cited:

http://www.pdx.edu/sped/faculty-autism-center

http://uocareer.uoregon.edu/about-us/directory/tera-hoffman.aspx

Summary: Washington, D.C. students debate the No Child Left Behind Act this February at Theodore Roosevelt High School. Some of the students bring examples from their own lives about how the Act has helped or hindered them.

Topic: Should the government reform the No Child Left Behind Act?
Category: Mainstream Journalistic

What is it? An online radio broadcast.
Publication Information: National Public Radio; February 26, 2009
Author: Claudio Sanchez
Location: The broadcast can be found here.
Accessed: March 8, 2009

Support:

John Aragonez,

Alex Lippo, Thurgood Marshall Academy student

India Young, The Lab School student

John Aragonez is a speech instructor at The Lab School in Washington, D.C. which teaches students with learning disabilities. Alex Lippo is one of the debaters and he has learning disabilities that make him unable to pass traditional standardized tests. India Young is one of the debaters arguing in favor of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Audience and Agenda:

National Public Radio (NPR) is a private, publicly funded non-profit membership media organization. It syndicates 797 public radio stations in the United States. Members are required to be “noncommercial or educational radio stations, they must have at least five-full time professional employees, operate or at least 18 hours per day, and not be designed solely to further a religious philosophy or be used for classroom programming.” While it strives to eliminate agendas being pushed by corporate sponsorship, it notorious for leaning to the liberal left. Many in the liberal left would be opposed to an act put into law by a conservative U.S President’s Administration, but other than suspicions of automatic disapproval of the works from a conservative administration, there is no reason that they would be unfit to provide news content in regards to the No Child Left Behind Act.

Usefulness:

This broadcast is useful because it provides a student perspective on the No Child Left Behind Act. Students from across Washington, D.C. come to Theodore Roosevelt High School to debate against each other about the act. Some are for and some are against, like a traditional debate but they are also the stakeholders. One of the student debaters, Alex Lippo, uses his own experience as a high-schooler with learning disabilities as an example. He says that he is making progress, but he feels that he would be one of those that could not meet the proficiency standards and would make his school look like it was failing him. This is very relevant to my should question because it is using the personal experiences of real students. This act is supposed to be helping them but even this small cross-section of students don’t feel helped. Some of these students must feel some confusion that while they feel they are learning and progressing, their government is telling them that that does not matter and that their school is failing them.

Works cited:

http://www.npr.org/about/

http://www.quantcast.com/npr.org

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96890393

Summary: Over 100 billion stimulus dollars is being sent to the nations schools but some administrators and teachers say its still not enough to stave off deep cuts teacher lay offs and cuts to the school year.

Topic: Should the government reform the No Child Left Behind Act?
Category: Mainstream Journalistic

What is it? An online radio broadcast.
Publication Information: National Public Radio; February 26, 2009
Author: Larry Abramson
Location: The broadcast can be found here.
Accessed: March 8, 2009

Support:

Barack Obama, President of the United States

Kevin Christian, Teacher in Marion County School District; Orlando, Florida.

Ray Cortinez, Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified

President Obama has promised that education is one of his top priorities. Kevin Christian is a teacher in Florida and believes that even large amounts of stimulus money won’t help his school district which is experiencing serious deficits that deepen every day. Ray Cortinez, a Californian Superintendent says that his district is facing a shortfall of 600 million dollars. The stimulus will come too late because he has to send off lay off notices now to meet contractual obligations.

Audience and Agenda:

National Public Radio (NPR) is a private, publicly funded non-profit membership media organization. It syndicates 797 public radio stations in the United States. Members are required to be “noncommercial or educational radio stations, they must have at least five-full time professional employees, operate or at least 18 hours per day, and not be designed solely to further a religious philosophy or be used for classroom programming.” While it strives to eliminate agendas being pushed by corporate sponsorship, it notorious for leaning to the liberal left. Many in the liberal left would be opposed to an act put into law by a conservative U.S President’s Administration, but other than suspicions of automatic disapproval of the works from conservative administrations, there is no reason that they would be unfit to provide news content in regards to the No Child Left Behind Act. The website reaches 2.8 million people a month.

Usefulness:

This article is important because it shows priority. We shouldn’t be worried about testing children when our schools simply trying to stay open and have the ability to operate. How can the federal government continue to place testing as a top-tier priority when its schools can’t even afford to stay open the whole year? Can students really be held to the same standards they were the year before when they get fewer days to learn their material? This is relevant to my should question because it shows that the No Child Left Behind Act has even lower priority and relevance in the times we are living in now.

Works cited:

http://www.npr.org/about/

http://www.quantcast.com/npr.org

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96890393

http://www.pdx.edu/sped/faculty-autism-center

Summary: Rahema Ellis reports that after seven years, No Child Left Behind will most likely be left behind because few experts feel it is helping the educational system despite causing a moderate climb in test scores. The main criticism in the report focuses on the fact that there is no national proficiency standard.

Topic: Should the government reform the No Child Left Behind Act?
Category: Mainstream Journalistic

What is it? An online video of a NBC Nightly News report.
Publication Information: NBC Nightly News; September 9, 2009
Author: Rahema Ellis
Location: The video can be found here.
Accessed: March 6, 2009

Support:

Thomas B. Fordham Institute Study

Michael Patrelli

Linda Taylor, Principal of Governs Elementary School

Margaret Spelling, Former Secretary of Education

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute study was conducted by the Washington, D.C based think tank by the same name. Michael Patrelli studies educational policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Linda Taylor supports the No Child Left Behind because of the fact that it has raised test scores in schools and it holds schools accountable. Margaret Spelling, Former Secretary of Education, was and still is a supporter of the No Child Left Behind act and feels it does not need to be reformed but does need to be tweaked.

Audience and Agenda:

NBC Nightly News is a nightly news program that usually racks in between 8.5 million viewers and 9.5 million viewers. It usually is a leader in ratings compared to ABC and CBS. The msnbc.com website that this video was found on gets about 2.5 million visits from people a month. NBC news (or the National Broadcasting Corporation) is owned by NBC Universal. NBC Universal is “one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.” It is 80% owned by General Electric and 20% owned by Vivendi. General Electric (GE) is a publicly traded company that is headed by Chairman and CEO, Jeff Immelt. It owns a variety of different companies and has many branches. Outside of owning 80% of NBC Universal, it runs an appliance branch, medical technology branch, aviation branch, and various businesses in the electrical fields. Vivendi is a relatively new company and also a publicly traded. It is a major player in the video game industry, recently buying and merging Activision and World of War craft creator Blizzard. Both of these companies have countless commercial interests which might affect the news organization they own but there is no apparent reason why it would affect reporting on an educational issue.

Usefulness:

This is useful because it is one of the leading media outlets flat out refuses to see the No Child Left Behind as anything other than a failure. The best arguments they have in favor of the No Child Left Behind act are really just a list of what it has brought to light. It is a good thing that schools are being held accountable for educating students but just because it did a few positive things doesn’t mean you can excuse all the harm and unnecessary punishment it has done to struggling schools. Schools, like the one in Gresham that the Oregonian reported as making great strides because of the pressure from the No Child Left Behind Act, are a rare breed. Those examples of a job well done don’t make up for a majority of America’s school, teachers and students being failed by a system that can’t adequately evaluate them.

Works cited:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/04/22/broadcast-evening-news-ratings-april-14-18/3449

http://www.quantcast.com/msnbc.com

http://www.nbcuni.com/About_NBC_Universal/Company_Overview/

http://www.ge.com/company/index.html

http://www.vivendi.com/vivendi/Company-history

Summary: A study from the Journal of Science reveals that the long held belief that there is a sizable learning gap between girls and boys when it comes to math and science may not really exist. It seems that societal pressure for girls to pursue fields unrelated to math and science is more of variable in some statistics than an inadequacy in teaching.

Topic: Should the government reform the No Child Left Behind Act?
Category: Mainstream Journalistic

What is it? An online video of a NBC Nightly News report.
Publication Information: NBC Nightly News; July 24, 2009
Author: Robert Bazell
Location: The video can be found here.
Accessed: March 6, 2009

Support:

The American Journal of Science

Dr. Janet Hyde, University of Wisconsin

The American Journal of Science conducted the study based on genders and performance in math and science as well as involvement in science and math related fields. Dr. Janet Hyde believes, based on her experience as a professor, that there is indeed a very real learning gap.

Audience and Agenda:
NBC Nightly News is a nightly news program that usually racks in between 8.5 million viewers and 9.5 million viewers. It usually is a leader in ratings compared to ABC and CBS. The msnbc.com website that this video was found on gets about 2.5 million visits from people a month. NBC news (or the National Broadcasting Corporation) is owned by NBC Universal. NBC Universal is “one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.” It is 80% owned by General Electric and 20% owned by Vivendi. General Electric (GE) is a publicly traded company that is headed by Chairman and CEO, Jeff Immelt. It owns a variety of different companies and has many branches. Outside of owning 80% of NBC Universal, it runs an appliance branch, medical technology branch, aviation branch, and various businesses in the electrical fields. Vivendi is a relatively new company and also a publicly traded. It is a major player in the video game industry, recently buying and merging Activision and World of War craft creator Blizzard. Both of these companies have countless commercial interests which might affect the news organization they own but there is no apparent reason why it would affect reporting on an educational issue.

Usefulness:

This article is use full because it talks about achievement gaps. Achievement gaps are important to the topic of No Child Left Behind because one of the goals the drafters had in mind was to close achievement gaps. Here is a long held belief, that girls fall far behind in math and science, being flat out contridicted. It claims that the numbers just don’t support those claims anymore. It attributes it to societal pressure for girls to pursue fields unrelated to math and science. If thats the case with this long held belief, maybe some other achievement gap statistics that the No Child Left Behind Act relies upon could be explained away.

Works cited:

http://www.ajsonline.org/

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/04/22/broadcast-evening-news-ratings-april-14-18/3449

http://www.quantcast.com/msnbc.com

http://www.nbcuni.com/About_NBC_Universal/Company_Overview/

http://www.ge.com/company/index.html

http://www.vivendi.com/vivendi/Company-history

Summary: Lois Molyneux, a third grade teacher nearing retirement, thinks the No Child Left Behind needs to change because it does not serve children that have tough home lives.

Topic: Should the government reform the No Child Left Behind Act?
Category: Citizen Interview

What is it? An interview with 3^rd Grade Teacher, Lois Molyneux

Support:

Molyneux has a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Music Education K – 9 & in Elementary Education. She has been teaching have for 27 years. She taught K – 8 general music and 6 – 8 band at Sherman School District. She taught K – 8 general music and 5 – 8 band. She then began to teach at Carus Elementary where she still teaches today. She began by teaching K – 6 general music for 8 years. For the last 14 years she has been teaching 3^rd and 4^th Grade. She has been teching 3^rd for 12 years.

Audience and Agenda:

Molyneux is a teacher and biased in matters regarding the workload of and responsibility of teachers, but there is no reason to suspect that her point of view is influenced by any commercial or outstanding political interest. She has not written any formal material in opposition to the No Child Left Behind Act.

Usefulness:

This interview was very useful because she focused her attention on a flaw of No Child Left Behind Act that is rarely mentioned: non-academic barriers for students. “There are students who will not pass the standards and/or benchmarks because of the home life they deal with everyday.” This relates directly to one of my first articles that discuses non-academic barriers in the form of mental illness. She maintains that the No Child Left Behinds Act assumes students from the same community in the same grade can be taught the same way, but Molyneux asks, “How can a student learn when they don’t know where they will sleep or what they will eat?” She says that there needs to be more exceptions to the rigid law if it is to truly to help students and schools. She suggests that the act could be written with a % of students not being left behind. She feels NCLB still needs to answer some questions. If the nation wants to evaluate teachers on state scores, when will we have high standards for the administrators doing their job to observe and document how teachers are performing?

Works cited:

http://www.carus.canby.k12.or.us/

Summary: Mary Ann Zehr blogs on Education Weekly’s forum, Curriculum Matters, about a new report from the Government Accountability Office regarding arts education in schools. The study found that 90% of teachers polled said that instruction time for arts education stayed the same between school years 2004-2005 and 2006-2007. It is this blogs opinion that arts education has been slipping for years and only schools that are high in minorities and are in need of improvement according to the No Child Left Behind Act have reported a decreased amount of instruction time in the arts.

Topic: Should the government reform the No Child Left Behind Act?
Category: Journalistic Opinion Blog

What is it? An online blog at blogs.edweek.com
Publication Information: Education Week; February 27, 2009
Author: Mary Ann Zehr
Location: The article can be found here.
Accessed: March 4, 2009

Support:

Government Accountability Office

Fran Smith

The Government Accountability Office compiled the data which the author of this blog used as part of her argument. Fran Smith wrote an essay called Why Arts Education Is Crucial, and Who’s Doing It Best and Zehr uses text from that essay within her own text to support her claims.

Audience and Agenda:

Education Weekly articles focus on educational reform, schools, and the policies that guide them. It is published by the Editorial Projects in Education Inc. It also publishes Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook, Digital Directions, edweek.org, teachermagazine.org, and TopSchoolJobs.org. “Edweek.org attracts a more youthful, fairly wealthy, female, more educated crowd. The typical visitor visits education-world.com and reads newswithviews.com.” according to quantcast.com. The site also has 143,000 people visit monthly.

Usefulness:

This article is useful because it talks about the arts in education. Since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, a recession of the arts in school has been blamed on it. Because so much emphasis is placed on reading and math, many schools tend to allocate more of their resources on core subjects. This blog claims that the absence of arts in schools is actually part of a larger movement to reallocate funds in schools where they have been facing funding shortfalls since before No Child Left Behind was ever implemented. The reason why this is relevant to my topic is because it basically tries to discredit one of the chief complaints that people have about the No Child Left Behind Act.


Works cited:

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-286

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2009/02/gao_loss_of_arts_education_hig.html

http://www.edweek.org/info/about/

http://www.quantcast.com/edweek.org