"The NCLB Act": Paradox With The Cultural Value System In American Society

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (hereinafter to referred as NCLB) reauthorizes and extensively amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965; establishes control over the majority of federal programs and spending that affect public education. Embedded in the Act are various requirements that states and schools must adhere to as a condition of receiving federal education funds as well as harsh sanctions for failing to meet the requirements.NCLB extends a morally laudable argument to help children attain academic success and to become proficient in reading, math, and science by the time they leave high school. However, many provisions seem to lead to effects countering the Act's stated goals, effects that unfairly burden teachers and schools, pit one student subgroup against another and weaken democratic education. The legislative and ideological shifts embedded in NCLB not only heighten tension over the role of public education, they also blur the line between competing notions of the nature of public education. While the NCLB Act largely enhances the role of the private sector in education, it still seeks to provide universal compulsory education. School choice and vouchers are market approaches that seek to transform education into a commodity, but the government still intends to pay for those vouchers and programs at least initially.Differing from those existing studies about the NCLB Act, this paper focus on the underlying paradox in the NCLB Act and American cultural value system. With a comprehensive analysis of the Act, especially on "proficiency test", "AYP", "parental choice", this paper finally draws the conclusion that the paradoxes of capitalistic proprietorship, social equality and ideology are the critical factors that impede the success of NCLB.