Should No Child be left behind?

The No Child Left Behind Act has been a debated program ever since it passed January 8, 2002. The bill was pushed by Senator Ted Kennedy, but then finally passed by President George Bush. The bill was instated to require states to standardize test all students in certain grades. The tests are designed to assess the education level at the schools in order to ensure that students are receiving equal schooling and to improve their overall education. It is said to be setting high standards and establishing memorable goals to improve individual outcomes in education. The test scores are required in order for the school to receive federal funding. The test scores also assess the quality of teaching in the schools. The media has covered this program in many different ways. To give an idea, there were 975 refined search results on Lexis Nexis, 1,170 videos on You tube, as well as many other articles on other media outlet websites. Majority of the coverage is done in newspaper articles and live television broadcasts. The Washington Post has published over 100 articles, and there are a variety in The New York Times and USA Today. The republican party and the Bush administration are focuses in the coverage. In addition, various educational boards, as well as known educators are mentioned and discussed. Obviously, educators, teachers and principals, would have an opinion on this matter, and a strong one. During the presidential election campaigns in 2004, John Kerry and George Bush were mentioned in the media because they debated this issue and it’s relevance to education. In addition, Obama has been featured in news stories and television broadcasts on the subject and his plans to reform the program. The media strategically framed this story to appeal to their audiences. The informal name for the bill was designed to evoke your emotions. The name No Child Left Behind gives you this idea of a poor lonely uneducated child. Giving it that name made people want to support it, because who would want to leave a child behind. It was a way to call attention to their campaign. Furthermore, the media feeds you this story. They gather all the information they can on this subject, and then take parts of it and assign an attitude to have towards the idea, usually agreeing with its market, and then feed the information to its audience. Obama recently has been promising reform of the bill to form to the needs of education today. A newspaper article will explain what Obama’s idea are thus far, decide whether or not they think this new plan will work, and then target it as newsworthy information to the public. No child left behind was established 8 years ago, and has been discussed even before that. When reading articles on the on the program, there have been many mixed reviews. Before the bill was passed, the media did shed a positive light on the subject. Saying that this is a start in education reform, and that will be great for teachers as well as students. There were on the other hand plenty of articles that did not see this program as being successful. The program requires a portion of our budget, and many educators do not see it as being successful. It was that it will take years to reform schools, and that teachers should be focused more on improvement, rather than position. The media seemed to be torn with this program. It is a highly discussed topic, but it apparent that there is more than one side to this program. Recently, the media has been in favor of the program, especially because Obama plans to improve it. USA Today describes it as a problem that Obama will fix. No child left behind is being framed, as it is outdated and needs alterations. Overall, the media has set high expectations for the new revised program, there are still some outlets, or people, who are uncertain the outcome of the program. These ideas are not usually highlighted in the media, but still visible.Overall, there is more than one perception one could have on the No child left behind act. The media has framed the program in many different ways over the years. Obama’s new plan to revolutionize the program is gaining a positive audience, although many educators still disagree with the plans effectiveness and do not think it will work out in the end.