Education Reform

Education Reform

The topic that I am choosing to write about is education.   While exploring the various subtopics within this group, I found education reform to be the most interesting and controversial to say the least. This is a topic that continues to receive a lot of media attention and was a major issue among voters in the 2008 presidential election.   During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush made the commitment to ensure that all children would receive a high quality education and that no child would be left behind.   As a result of this promise, one year after he was elected, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was overwhelmingly passed by Republicans and Democrats alike making it a household name.  
As an expository essay the purpose of this paper would be to inform the reader and myself of the history and research that supports the need for educational reform, the No Child Left Behind policy details, federal and state financial distribution, program initiatives, and the effectiveness of the Act over the past eight years.   Very few Americans know the history, details, and effects behind the No Child Left Behind Act.   Therefore, as I dig deeper into this research, I see the potential to address some common misconceptions Americans have regarding NCLB due to its portrayal in the media.   I would introduce the topic by discussing the source of the original concern for education reform.   In 1983, the report A Nation at Risk was released under the Reagan administration. This report compared the performance of American students to their peers in other advanced countries.   Needless to say, the research found that the United State’s educational system was failing to meet the demands for a competitive workforce.   Thus the standards-based movement was born.   After explaining how this movement eventually evolved into the No Child Left Behind Act, I would proceed by breaking down the 4 different components of the policy itself.   In addition, it would be necessary to...