The no child left behind act and the black-white achievement gap in u.s. public schools

Abstract

The present study probes into the academic achievement gap between black students and their more affluent white cohorts in U.S. public education by highlighting the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002 and weighing up its potential effects on redressing educational inequities and, therefore, bridging the black white achievement gap. The stated intent of the NCLB is to foster greater educational accountability at all levels by upgrading the performance of all students from dissimilar backgrounds. The focus of this thesis is to pore over the disparities in academic assessments specifically among black students, as their underachievement is so pronounced and lags behind the achievement of their white peers. Exploration of the distant historical origins that laid the foundations for the current black-white achievement gap; scrutiny of the miscellaneous potential explanations for African Americans’ underachievement; and review of the key educational events and policies that gave birth to the NCLB are helpful to assess the impact of the NCLB on black students’ academic achievement and to debate its potential perverse incentives. Tracking the progress of black and white students in U.S. public schools and appraising the changing rate of segregation against black students throughout the different levels of the American educational system, both before and after the adoption of the NCLB is equally crucial to weigh up the effect of the NCLB’s implementation on bridging the gap. While the consequences of the existing gap on both American individuals and the larger U.S. society remain perverse, miscellaneous practices and dissimilar strategies proved to be highly effective in reducing the black white achievement gap and recapturing students left behind. Thus, review of the NCLB’s broken provisions as well as president Obama’s current education agenda becomes a prerequisite. This research reveals that despite the relative triumph of the NCLB to bridge the black white achievement gap, the slow rate of progress ensured the persistence of brutal performance discrepancies.