No Child Left Behind Act

I never knew too much about what the No Child Behind Act meant so I decided to google "no child left behind pros and cons". I have heard negative things about it but I wanted to gather a sense of both sides of the argument. After pulling up several articles, I decided that this one was a good one: No Child Left Behind Act

To me, a lot of the positives weren't really positive or that profound to make it to the list but I found the negatives to be more crucial to students. Some pros that did stand out to me though were special focus on students from low-income groups and disabilities, academic improvement in all subject categories, and negligible achievement gap between white students and minorities. Some cons that stood out to me were  forced, mandatory curriculum in reading, writing, and arithmetic, impairing advancement, lack of sensitivity towards Disabilities Education for the visually impaired and others, and lowered official state standards to earn incentive from improvement via standardized tests.

I think No Child Left Behind is a prime example of teachers having to teach to the test. We discussed this in class about the issues with standardized testing. I also believe that there are some students who are failing academically but are moved to the next grade level simply so they wont be left behind. I think the No Child Left Behind should be no more, or if continued, it should be reformed.

What were some of the pros and cons that stuck out to you? What do you think of the No Child Left Behind Act?