Americans want overhaul (but does Congress?)

In 2002 President George W. Bush signed The No Child Left Behind Act into legislation. Making No Child Left Behind effective has been quite a job for the federal and state legislation. The federal government wants all public schools in each state to adhere to the act without considering the prospect that these forced standards are a difficult task to accomplish. The major goal of NCLB was to improve the education system in America through the introduction of standardized tests and to close the learning gap between low-income students, disabled students, and multi-cultural students. NCLB was intended to give students a standard education and to help improve our public schools. Over the past nine years since NCLB has been in effect, students are still failing to make the grade and a large percentage of students graduating high school are not prepared for college. The majority of Americans polled want the act rewritten or eliminated all together, but does Congress?
NCLB had the support of both parties and when it was first put into effect the intentions were great. The law placed a lot of weight on accountability for teachers. To become more accountable, each state was to design curriculums with the most basic and fundamental standards that every child should know such as math, reading and writing skills. Teachers and school administrators are being held accountable for making sure that each student meets the standards that are set forth by the No Child Left Behind Act. Teachers are responsible for making sure they are teaching the basic essentials of reading, writing and math but what about the other subjects that students need to learn like science, social studies and other skills that will give them a well rounded education. Has the government lost sight of the fact that the testing is placing stress on the teachers and students and the group of kids that this was designed to help are still at least two or three grades levels below where they should be in reading alone even after they reach high school. All students in public schools will take these tests through high school once a year to measure their aptitude skills. According to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, NCLB has been overly focused on standardized testing, yet it keeps pushing for states to use these test scores as a factor in evaluating, tenuring, firing and paying teachers. This would only tighten the grip these tests have on schools and research shows NCLB is not working for the students of America. So after all of the testing and the