No Child Left Behind and the Effects on Children with Special Needs Research Proposal

No Child Left Behind and the Effects on Children with Special Needs - Research Proposal Example No Child Left Behind makes it compulsory that the schools across the United should track the improvement and progress of all children with special education needs and students whose first language is not English. The Act advocates the schools to devise strategies so that such students attain similar score as their peers by the year 2014 (Harper, 2005). No Child Left behind Act advocates space and provisions for students with special education needs because not all children who are limited in English proficiency and have some kind of learning disability have the capability to take tests that are similar to those of other students in their standard. The allowances comprise of one-on-one testing periods, expanded test sessions, test booklets with large fonts, helping students to structure their answers and sign language translators (George & Margaret, 2007). The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) has advantages for the students with special needs or learning disabilities but it als o includes certain barriers that might prevent these students from exercising all of the opportunities stated in the law (Cortiella, 2010). In the lieu of this paper we will be discussing the impact of NCLB on such students and assess its usefulness for children that require extra attention due to any kind of learning disability. This stipulation in the act helps the school administration; lawmakers, parents and the Education Department assess the improvement in the progress of students who are usually left behind in better academic attainment. NCLB with all its apparent advantages has initiated heated debates over the efficacy of standardized tests for the two groups that are the normal students and the students with special needs, and... This essay stresses that according to the review of literature on the topic, it has been highlighted that the NCLB Act has immensely affected students with special needs. The motivation that is provided for the low-performing students has decreased the level of expectations instead of increasing it. This is so because of the fact that the reaction of the law when the school fails to make adequate progress is not just providing extra help for students but also punishing the school. This report makes a conclusion that NCLB aims at reducing racial and class discrepancies in academic performance through establishing common expectation for all students. The Act also requires that the schools to pay consideration to academic performance of the underprivileged students; students with special requirements, students from low income groups as well as students of different ethnicities. Conventional systems that were employed by the states considered only the mean school performance. This allowed the schools to be rated highly even in cases where there ware broad achievement discrepancies between underprivileged and privileged students. Extensive research in this area of acceleration shows that it is an effective and low cost educational intervention for students with high abilities. 18 types of accelerations have been identified. Dual credit programs, ability grouping, Advanced Placement, and International Baccalaureate are some other posted suggestions for meeting the n eeds of the gifted students.