No Child Left Behind
...Behind (NCLB). No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was singed into law on January 8, 2002 (Sharpe & Hawes, 2003 p. 1). This law changed how education was to be taught in America. Many new laws and regulations came into effect once this law was signed into effect. Many changes were made to the entire education system, including children with disabilities. I am currently enrolled in the Special Education Department at Kean University and this law has changed many aspects of how the curriculum is currently operating. The purpose of this paper is to research the impact the NCLB may have on students with special needs.
The government's goal is to educate special education students and general education students together in the same classroom. The government decided that the special education system should be evaluated and they found that a radical change was needed to improve it. (Kaureffman, 2004 p. 1). One of the main changes that the government wanted to see was the achievement gap between special education students and general education students. I'm assuming that their main purpose was to have the same age child in general education be educated with the others in regular education classes. Closing the gap meant that students with a mental disability are able to learn just as fast as general education students.
After President Bush put NCLB into action three years ago, the nation started to ask if this law is truly helping our children with disabilities. Is this new law really helping our students exceed expectations? Or is this law doing nothing more then frustrating the students and teachers as they watch their success diminish? Before 2002 children with disabilities were taught together in a single classroom. There was no factor on how old the child was. They were in a classroom with a trained teacher who went to school to learn how to teach these children. Each...
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