Alexa Hanson-Wagner 1 of 24

Alexa Hanson-Wagner

Nkenna Onwuzuruoha

ENGL 1010

11 December 2017

Letter of Transmittal

Dear Nkenna Onwuzuruoha,

during this course, I ended up learning a lot more than I thought I would have, and I

think that a huge reason behind that was the fact that this was an online course. I had to reach

out and search for my own information and learn on my own, rather than just sitting in a class,

listening to a teacher tell me what I needed to know. Because of that, this class reached me on

a much more personal level. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I am not sure.

What I enjoyed the most and probably what I will take away from this class, is that

everyone writes and reads differently. When reviewing others work, I noticed that many people

had different interpretations of assignments and because of that, their papers ended up being

very different from mine. The most different writing technique was the use of language. Some

people, while writing professionally, still had a casual tone. I feel like I fit under that category.

Some people, while writing, sounded like they were writing a scientific report with the language

that they used.

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To go along with that, I feel like the context of their papers had a lot do with their

language use. I know that the concept of Context was more associated with the context of the

articles we were reading for our rhetorical analysis, but often if the article they chose was more

political, than their tone and language fit suit. When looking at my Rhetorical Analysis, I would

say I spoke in a more casual tone, because the article that I chose was about a very personal

issue for people in general.

When conducting or receiving reviews, I was very thankful for our labs. They were not

nearly as intimidating as reading a paper to a full classroom, and even though our papers were

posted online for everyone to see, the fact that there was a screen between me and them, put

my mind at ease. I enjoyed being able to see and hear an instructor or peers reaction to my

narrative because the way we use the concept Action, I would say is definitely one of my

strengths. I learned the Show not Tell technique as early as middle school, but throughout high

school, I did not have many opportunities to use it. During this course I enjoyed being able to

learn about other techniques and practice the techniques that I had already learned. I actually

ended up being very proud of my narrative and found it hard to revise it again for this

assignment as I was very pleased with my second draft. It will probably be a piece that I save for

a long time.

I will admit that the amount of work did get overwhelming. I have never been good in

handling long lists, and I noticed that have four to six assignments to do every week became

intimidating and I would often fall behind, especially during the Annotated Bibliography portion

of the course. For me, that was the least interesting part of the course because summarizing,
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even though I may be a bit excessive with it, does not seem important to me, unless its

involved in a paper like the viewpoint synthesis. The viewpoint synthesis was different because

it was a whole product. The annotated bibliography just seemed like a bunch of snapshots put

together as kind of a bumper for the viewpoint synthesis. I know that it is important to learn,

but in my opinion, it was not as important as the other skills we learned during this course.

I did end up surprising myself in the fact that I did not hate writing the rhetorical

analysis, in fact there were some parts that I rather enjoyed. From doing the assignment, I was

able to recognize other writing techniques that the authors of the articles used, and it has

provided me with ideas for future writing. I also ended up being very interested in the article

that I read. I even posed a quote from it online because I thought that a lot of my friends and

family would enjoy it. I had not experienced that while writing a rhetorical analysis previously.

That in itself I think is a major reason why I enjoyed the assignment much more than I expected.

Overall, this course was hard, my hardest class into my college education so far. That is

probably because of new issues that I have unfortunately had to deal with during this time, but

it is also because there was a lot of information that we learned, which I do think is good. I

dont think that I did nearly as well during this course as I could have, and I am disappointed in

myself because of that. However, I did learn a lot, and I will at least let that help hold my head

up.

Sincerely,

Alexa Hanson-Wagner
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An Odd Place

A Short Narrative about an Unexpected Place

Sunlight stretched through Nancys open window as though to say, Good morning.

Her eyes began to open, and revealed the bright glow that spread across her bedroom. Outside,

she could see the flowers opening up to the welcoming light, their pink and orange leaves

giving way to the blue watermelon sized petals. Their sweet aroma filled Nancys nose, and her

first smile of the day spread across her face.

From downstairs, she heard the sound of her baby brother giggling. Nancy hopped out

of bed and ran down the steps that lead to the kitchen. There in his high chair was Jeremy,

giggling and giggling, and in front of him, their mother arranging her face into abnormal shapes.

She was the queen of making silly faces.

After a few minutes of laughing, Nancy was ready for the rest of her day. She wrapped

her arms around her mother in a warm embrace and burst out the front door. Where should I

go today? She did not know, so she started to run. She ran past her neighbors house, past the

lake where she often swam, past a meadow, a pond, a forest, and past a creek. She ran and ran

with all her might because she loved it. She loved to see her favorite places, the familiar places,

the new places, and the -- odd places? Her run slowed to a walk.

This was an odd place. Beside her, branchless tree trunks had broken out of the stone

ground and twisted tightly up higher and higher until they curved back down and hung to the

ground. Nancys eyes fell to the greyish-green flowers that touched her knees. Her fingers

reached one of the dry stems and plucked it. She brought it to her nose and took a sniff,
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scentless. Although light in her hands, it dropped with the weight of a rock when she let it go.

Instead of a thud, it hit the ground like a breeze and nothing remained but a pile of dust.

This really is an odd place, she thought to herself. She looked up at the sun that was

shining down, when the light was blocked by a giant figure; an owl-like bird with massive wings

flew overhead. It did not bother her, only flew into the distance. It was then that she noticed

the land surrounding her was very dim. If the sun was shining, why did it look as though it was a

cloudy day?

Nancy did not like this odd place. She wearily continued on, but it took some effort. The

once stone ground had turned into a sticky mess that clung to her shoes like gum to hair. She

only felt a slight ache in her legs for the first few minutes, but as she continued on, the ache

grew more painful. With each step, it inched farther up her little legs and she could eventually

feel it in every bit of her exhausted body. One by one, she removed her feet from the sticky

grey glop and one by one, she put her feet in front of her. After what seemed like hours of

going nowhere, she had had it. Her legs used the last bit of energy they had to trudge to a patch

of dry grass, where she collapsed.

The grass provided little comfort, but it was better than the sticky mess. A single tear

left Nancys eye and trickled down her cheek. Was she ever going to see her home again? Was

she ever going to hear Jeremys sweet little giggle again? Thats when she heard it. Jeremys

giggle. She looked up. There on one of the branchless trees was a window. Again, she heard the

babys squeal of joy. Her body reluctantly got on to its hands and knees and she crawled over to

the tree. Her hands grabbed at the trunk and pulled her head up high enough to look through

the window.
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Nancys mouth spread into a smile once again as she saw her homes kitchen and stared

upon her baby brother in his highchair, laughing, while her mother made those silly faces. She

laughed and laughed and cried all at once. She wished she could be there. She wished she could

hug her mother once more. She wanted to be with her family again. She brushed the tears from

her cheeks as she found a new energy rising in her, the pain in her body had subsided.

Nancy took a different look at the land surrounding her. Far off in the distance she could

see more light. That was where she was going to go. She could not run there though, not

through that mud. She looked again at those odd trees and grabbed onto their odd hanging

trunks. Her arms pulled the twisted limb back with all her might and lifted her feet off of the

ground. Through the air, she swung. Quickly, she approached the next trunk and grabbed onto

it with her hand, and again she swung forward. From tree to tree, she almost flew.

In no time at all she could see a familiar place, a creek. Once her feet had reached the

ground, she burst into a run. She ran past the crystal clear water of the familiar creek, past the

bright green trees of that familiar forest, past the pond, the lake, past her neighbors and

through the front door of her little house. She was home. Jeremy was still sitting in his highchair

as she had hoped and she had never heard a more beautiful sound as he giggled and squealed

at the sight of his sister. It was then that she saw the most amazing woman she had ever

known, her mother. She gladly accepted the embrace that her mother gave. It was warm.

Warmer than toes by a toasty fire. Nancy took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. She really

was home.
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The Tone of Body Love

A Rhetorical Analysis of an Article about Body Positivity

An article named Forget Body Positivity: What About Body Neutrality? was written by

Marisa Meltzer and published on March 1, 2017. From the beginning of the article, it is clear

that its intended audience is women, more specifically, women who deal with self-directed

body negativity. In todays society, there are many preferred body types, but no matter the

effort to eliminate it, photo shopping and body shaming are still very prevalent, even if it is

simply directed at oneself. In contradiction to these many unrealistic standards and common

negative thoughts, many women strive and even promote body positivity or body love, but that

may be an unrealistic standard as well.

In her article, Meltzer goes over many examples to show how women try to better their

bodies but many doctors and writers are focusing on the mindset of these women. Instead of

focusing on living in the moment and enjoying life, these women place their self-worth on how

much they like or dislike their bodies, which the doctors agree, is not healthy. The article

mentions that maybe the way to look at bodies is to focus on what they actually are, in a

neutral way. Instead of focusing on their appearance, focus on their function. Meltzer uses her

casual tone, wording, and quotes from other writers to help support her claims and relate to

other women that loving ones body is hard, and thats ok.

The appeal Ethos seems to be the most prevalent rhetorical appeal that is used because

in almost every paragraph, Meltzer quotes many authors who either work for big name

magazines, are professors of psychology, have their PhD in psychology or other related fields,
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or people who specialize in fitness and health. By quoting these people who have a lot of life

experience on the particular mentioned topic, it immediately gives Meltzer credibility. Not only

does it show that she is willing to do the research, but it also gives the information that she is

reporting credibility. This is an effective use of ethos as it has given her article a more trusting

quality.

Meltzer often relies on appeal of pathos to make a point come across to her audience.

For example, when a large group of women are staying at Green Mountain in Vermont in an

effort to gain body love, two women share their stories and issues with their bodies. One

woman shares when she was a young woman, she had a very fit swimmers body, but when she

left for college, she gained a lot of weight. Dealing with that severe body change made her feel

shameful when comparing herself to her past self. The other woman experiences almost the

opposite, after losing weight, she still felt obese. Meltzer uses this example as a way to connect

to her audience to show that many women experience both sides of the issue, dealing with the

physical and the mental, which is an effective use of the appeal because it is something which

many women can relate to.

As another example of the appeal pathos, Meltzer mentions the common struggles with

tasty food and feeling guilty, which is a common struggle. Its hard to resist such tasty yet

unhealthy treats. After eating such things a women may feel so called fat, which is such a

negative point of view. This is when Meltzer uses one of the more strong examples of pathos,

love. She relates how one feels about their body to how one many feel about their loved one.

This proves to be very effective because it brings out the emotional connection and happy

feelings that the reader may associate with their significant other. By relating the two, it forces
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the reader to take a more positive look on their body and even allow them to emotionally

connect to their body.

To contradict these feelings of guilt that many women experience when it comes to

gaining weight and eating sweets, Meltzer turns to logos. She often points out situations where

women simply listened to what their body wanted, while still taking care of it in moderation.

Meltzer quoted women who when wanting a snack, they gave their body a snack, or when

wanting to go to yoga, they went to yoga, but at the same time making sure that if they ate

pizza or made themselves a homemade meal, they let themselves enjoy it. In the end, they

noticed that they had lost weight. By acknowledging this example, it shows to her audience that

by just listening to what the body needs, the body ends up being healthy, without the effort of

going through awful diets and workout routines. Meltzer also points out to her readers that

looking at the body in the most logical sense is very important. Sometimes just focusing on

what the bodies function is, helps the person remember what the purpose of their body is and

that appearance is not what matters. Acknowledging that the body is working and doing what it

is meant to do, like walk or stand, is enough to be proud of. Using the appeal Logos is effective

in her work because her audience has now been informed of a logical solution that they can

turn to.

Another quality of Meltzers article that makes it more interesting and possibly easier to

read to her preferred audience, is her tone and word use. In some of the mentioned quotes,

the writers are talking as though they were having a normal conversation with someone on the

street or maybe a friend. A couple times, even a mild swear word is used, making the tone of

the article more casual. Meltzer mirrors these qualities in her own writing. Instead of writing as
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though she was creating a scientific report about the effects of the mind on the body, she

writes as though she was trying to convince a friend that they didnt need to feel bad about

their body, but reassuring them that it doesnt make them strange, abnormal, or sad because

they do. By having this tone, it makes her article more welcoming and easier to read. If she was

simply throwing facts at her readers and making her claims by using an abrupt and blunt tone, it

would make her article less welcoming, more harsh, and less appealing to her audience. Overall

her tone mirrors the same tone that one might expect in an intervention.

Meltzers article was successful in making her claims understandable and interesting by

using logic, emotion, and the credibility of many professionals. The professionals that she

quoted gave her good quality examples to use and offered experiences from many people

rather than just one person. She used examples that targeted the logical part of the mind that

allowed the reader help decipher some of their negative body imaging. She used emotional

examples to create a relatable connection to her readers and to also allow them to make

positive body image connections towards themselves. And last but not least, she made sure

that her tone and word choice was very casual and welcoming to create a safe and

conversation-like environment for her readers.

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The No Child Left Behind Act

An Annotated Bibliography on the No Child Left Behind Act

The No Child Left Behind Act was written into law by George W. Bush in 2002. It was

created to help close the minority educational gap, and to motivate schools and teachers to

place a higher standard on their student. If the students did not meet the par that was

required, schools were forced to offer free tutoring or an option of switching to a better school.

Many people would argue that while it had good intentions, it was not successful in its goals

due to the fact that it changed the focus in the classroom from learning to testing. Others

would argue that the law did improve the level of education for the students, as studies did

show that test scores improved. As per usual, there was a middle ground where many felt as

though there was potential for improvement but since states lowered the par in order to make

testing easier for their students so as to not suffer the federal consequences, and since parents

did not take advantage of the benefits offered, it was not as successful as it could have been.

Klein, Alyson. No Child Left Behind Overview: Definitions, Requirements, Criticisms, and

More. Education Week, 10 Apr. 2017, www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/no-

child-left-behind-overview-definition-summary.html.

This article goes over the definitions under the No Child Left Behind Act and almost all

other related content, such as responsibilities of the states and so on. It begins

explaining what The Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the No Child Left

Behind Act are, and the differences between the acts.

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Under the No Child Left Behind Act, there are many rules and regulations that the

schools in each state must follow, the article explains what happens to the schools if

they do meet the requirement. The article also acknowledges criticisms that the law

may have from the public and how the politicians since George W. Bush have handled

the law.

I will use this article as a good base of knowledge for my research paper, as it does not

lean towards any particular opinion, and gives the most basic of the facts for the No

Child Left Behind Act. It is important to have a good source that one can rely on for just

the definitions and the context of the law, especially when it is knowledge that has been

provided for every American to use.

GreatSchools Staff | March 8, 2016 Print article. What the No Child Left Behind law means

for your child. Great Schools, 8 Mar. 2016, www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/no-

child-left-behind/.

What The No Child Left Behind Law Means For Your Child article goes many aspects of

the law. Not only does it cover what the law is, similar to the previous article, but it also

goes over the effects that it has on the students such as how it is good for the student

and also how it may physically benefit the schools. School and teachers may receive

bonuses if their results are positive, meet the requirements, and show improvement.
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Unlike the previous article, this one goes over more specifics, how often tests must be

taken and also statistics. These statistics explain the actual effectiveness of the act, and

show how many families and students actually take advantage of the benefits that come

with the law. The statistics show that many families do not, and that is mostly because

schools do not make families aware of the benefits. Parents can help solve this issue by

being more proactive about asking the schools about their teachers, and programs.

Reflecting back on this article, I know that it will be very helpful when acknowledging

the third point of view when it comes to the No Child Left Behind Act, and that is that

some may think that this act could be helpful, but that it isnt because schools take

shortcuts to make the requirements. It is very clear that the article is directed towards

families, and more specifically parents, especially because it mentions how parents can

help. This article is very helpful be elaborating more on the facts to do with the law, and

since it comes from a non-profit school website, it is clear that the writers are just trying

to provide information for the public, making them a much more credible sight.

Connectusfundadmin. 14 Crucial Pros and Cons of the No Child Left Behind Act.ConnectUS,

24 July 2015, connectusfund.org/14-crucial-pros-and-cons-of-the-no-child-left-behind-

act.

The majority of the articles that I have viewed have either been against the No Child Left

Behind Act, or they have been specifically informative. This article goes over seven pros

to the law and seven cons to the law. One of the pros to the law is that students test
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scores have improved, even in minority groups. While the test scores have improved, so

have the quality of the educators. It has also given an advantage to the minority by

further closing the education gaps between races. However, some of the cons include

underfunding from the federal government, too much focus on test scores, and too high

of standards for teachers. The high standards in most cases would be a good thing, and

even though it has improved the quality of teachers, it has also decreased the amount

of teachers because it is harder for teachers to qualify for certain programs.

This article written by Connect Us will be helpful in writing my viewpoint synthesis as it

provides good information to support both main claims of the argument towards the

law. Considering that the article is posted on a non-profit website, means that it has a

lot or credibility and the only purpose behind it is to report facts to the public without

any benefits. I havent been able to find many articles that are in favor of the law,

therefore it is helpful for me to find some information that actually supports the law as I

need to address multiple viewpoints. The information that the law has improved test

scores, definitely does make NCLB look better and shows that it is accomplishing

something.

Strauss, Valerie. No Child Left Behinds Test-Based Policies Failed. Will Congress Keep Them

Anyway? The Washington Post, WP Company, 13 Feb. 2015,

www.washingtonpost.com/news.answer-sheet/wp/2-15/02/13/no-child-left-behinds-
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test-based-policies-failed-will-congress-keep-them-

anyway/?utm_term=.79996ccb33af

As in many laws, the context of them is very important. Strauss article covers the

context and the education system before the No Child Left Behind Act was put into

place. Before President George W. Bush signed the law, he admitted that the standards

for the United States Education system were low and that that idea needed to change.

He also stated that the education gap between minority and majority groups needed to

be closed, this law was created to help that by offering tutoring and other options for

schooling to less privileged students, however the article noted that even though this

was the intention, in many cases it was not effective.

There is also a debate on how the testing affects the students, some believe that the

testing improves the standards for the students and teachers, and some believe that it

interrupts the creative focus in the classroom. Strauss mentions what each side of the

debate misses and provides a different outlook to each side of the testing debate.

I plan on using Strauss article to acknowledge the general two sides of the debate when

it comes to the No Child Left Behind Act. This article would be good in stating the two

different points of view and also establishing the cons to both arguments. I also liked

that it acknowledged the low standards that America holds for their students and

overall, even though the article seems to lean towards disapproving the law, it does

agree that the higher standards placed by the law, should be kept. While telling whether
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or not a news website is credible or noth may be difficult, for the most part, they try to

report facts to the public. One can assume that there must be some credibility,

however, a reader would want to use the information with caution. It is clear that

Strauss is attempting to point this out to the general public and explain to them that we

need be educationally equal to the other developed countries.

Hobart, Susan J. One Teacher's Cry: Why I Hate No Child Left Behind. Progressive.org, 9

Aug. 2008, progressive.org/dispatches/one-teacher-s-cry-hate-child-left-behind/.

Susan Hobart discusses what kind of teacher she used to be. How she would explore

creativity and connect her lessons to the lives of her students. When NCLB came into

the picture, the focus changed in her classroom from that creativity to being a test

buster. Instead of focusing on her lessons on connecting them to the students, they

were about testing. She was forced to include lessons such as how to fill in the bubble

on a test sheet. The testing was required so that she, the administration, and the public

could observe the progress of the schools students but what it failed to do was evaluate

the individuality of each student. The tests did not access each students situation, what

their other strengths were, or their daily achievements. They just gave the

administration and students a number. That was their identity.

While Hobart agrees that constant assessment of the students is important, she

disagrees with the method of assessment that NCLB brings. She has been told that many

of her lessons that she used to use, are considered wrong now. Before NCLB, she would
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read to her students, now she is told she is not allowed to do that, among other things.

These are lessons that past students have told her that they greatly appreciated her for

and that even years later, they still remember her class and how much it helped them

and taught them. Even though her students positively reacted to her past teaching, she

is still not able to enjoy that aspect of her teaching anymore and that is why she hates

NCLB.

This article is good for a lot of information, especially when addressing the opposing

side of NCLB. This article addresses more of the negative impacts that NCLB had on

teachers. While it was created to motivate teachers and schools in their teachings, it has

seemed to do the opposite for this teacher and that is worth recognizing. Whether

intentions may be good or not, if they arent effective then it isnt worth keeping. It may

not be as credible as an article from a governmental website that is non-profit, but there

is some credibility in the fact that it was written by a teacher with lots of experience in

teaching who clearly has passion when it comes to her lessons and her students. This is

an argument that shows that even while trying to use it to her benefit, NCLB has done

Hobart more bad than good. Her tone seems to be addressing the administration and

the government, showing them that their decision is not helping her.

Rizga, Kristina. Almost Everyone Hates No Child Left Behind. It's Finally about to

Change.Mother Jones, 23 June 2017, www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/12/no-

child-left-behind-overhaul/.
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Many Americans are opposed to the No Child Left Behind Act and it was a pretty

common opinion that the law needed to be dropped, as it was recently. Rizga talks

about some of the main reasons why the law was dropped, such as how there was too

much testing. Testing was taking focus away from the actual learning and it forced

teachers to have to teach testing techniques rather than focus on the information that

was actually in the tests. When they did go over what they needed to learn for the test,

they werent able to spend as much time on the topics and were not able be creative.

The actual tests were also taking time out of the classroom. During a school year,

students would take 10 or more standardized tests.

This of course a major reason why the law was dropped, since, a new educational law

has been put into place. The public needed to be aware as to what actually made it

different from the previous law. The biggest difference in the new law is that the role of

the federal law in the states education is a lot smaller which means that states can now

decide the progress of their students instead of the federal government. Whether or not

this will improve the education system, Rizga does not know, but she thinks that based

on research, it will.

I think the statistics about how much time students spend taking tests will be really

helpful when writing my paper. It acknowledges the negatives of the law and makes a

good point towards how the law reduces the quality of the education provided. Like
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many of the other articles listed, Rizga is writing to the public and it does not seem to be

focused on a specific audience outside of the citizens of the United States.

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The No Child Left Behind Act and Its Effectiveness in The Classroom

A Viewpoint Synthesis on The No Child Left Behind Act

Elementary school was not easy for me, I struggled with focusing in class, and

learning in the same way that my peers did. I was still considered an intelligent child,

just different, which made school hard. At a public school, I did not fit in to the cookie

cutter mold that was set for each student, and my memory may be fuzzy, but I believe

this brought down the average of my class. Thankfully I attended an elementary school

that cared about my success and I received tutoring that allowed me to move through

school at an equal pace to my peers. I was lucky.

It is a common opinion amongst Americans that our education system is not held

to the standards that it should be, especially when it comes to the public school system.

In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into Law (Klein

2017), the main goal of this law was to place higher standards on students and more

specifically, schools and their teachers. When the No Child Left Behind Act was signed

into law, there was an enormous amount of support from congress, but the publics

opinion often differed and the question remains, did this law limit or help our students?

It should be acknowledged that the No Child Left Behind Act is no longer in

use; instead, it has been replaced by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act,

which was originally signed into law by Lindon B. Johnson in 1965 (Klein 2017). When

the No Child Left Behind Act was in place, it had many rules and regulations. Under the

NCLB, students from third grade and through high school were required to take tests in
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reading and math to measure their progress. Each state could decide what the

progress requirements were, but all of the students needed to meet these requirements.

Not all schools would be affected by this law, but if schools that received Title

I funding did not meet the requirements for two years in a row or more, the schools

would suffer consequences. Consequences included allowing students to transfer to a

better performing school, providing free tutoring, being shut down, or losing federal

funding (Great Schools Staff 2016). In some situations, schools may be required to use

a portion of their federal funding for tutoring and school choice (Klein 2017). These

consequences were meant to motivate schools and teachers to use more resources

and put more effort into the helping and teaching of their students by placing a higher

standard on them.

It has been noted that since the No Child Left Behind Act was written in to

law, in general, the test scores for students had improved (Connect Us Fund

Administration 2015) as well as the quality of the teachers. One may assume that the

two probably went hand-in-hand. This was because of the higher standards placed on

the public schools. Many people agree that this was one of the breakthroughs for our

country, and that we should not go back to the standards that were held before NCLB-

schooling (Strauss 2015).

However, many argue that the law did not place higher standards on schools

at all, just stricter punishments. A huge flaw in the law was the fact that states were

allowed to choose the requirements that had to be met. Yes some states may have

decided to place higher standards on their schools, but other states also chose to make

their tests easier so that more students could meet the proficiency standards (Great
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Schools Staff 2016). This would ensure that the schools would not lose funding, and

would also ensure that their teachers would keep their jobs. In these instances, the law

was doing the exact opposite of what it had intended.

The focus has also shifted in schools from learning to testing. Instead of

giving lessons that were diverse and well rounded, many teachers had to shift their

lessons to test-taking techniques. Susan Hobert (2008) said that under the law, she had

to spend more time than previously on teaching her students how to just take the test.

This was because students between the 3rd and 8th grades would end up taking 10-20

multiple choice standardized tests, each year (Rizga 2017). If students are only in

school for 9 out of the 12 months out of the year, that is more than 1 test per month, no

wonder the class room focus was changing.

As I have shown, there were both pros and cons when it came to the No Child

Left Behind Act, showing that the law has been helpful for students and also limiting at

the same time. Many people believe that it was both, that the law was somewhat

helpful, but not as helpful as it could have been, and that if other measures were taken,

it could have been very beneficial to the students. One of the reasons why the law never

reached its full potential was because families would not take advantage of the benefits

offered. In the 2005-2006 school year, only 1.6% of the students eligible to transfer in

low-performing schools did so (Great School Staff 2016). If parents had been more

adamant on using the resources offered, more students could have excelled or

improved their performance in school. In these cases, it was not the laws fault, just the

lack of usage.
 Alexa Hanson-Wagner 23 of 24

From the point of view of an adult who was an elementary student during

some of the first years of the law, I noticed that overall, my teachers cared about my

success, as well as the administration. When I was struggling, the free tutoring was

offered to me, and because of that, I benefited from the No Child Left Behind Act. As I

mentioned before, I was lucky. When I started my research for this project, I had

positive views towards the No Child Left Behind Act, and why would I not? It helped me.

But as I did more research and learned more about how the law affected schools, my

positive views began to fade. The higher standards were ideal, but the way they were

implemented, was not. After finishing my research, I have concluded that the No Child

Left Behind Act was well intentioned, and while the law did improve test scores and the

quality of teachers, the quality of the education did not. Shifting the focus from learning

to testing is not an effective way of teaching and that part did need to change because

not every student will fit the cookie cutter mold that those tests may shape.

Work Cited:

Klein, Alyson. No Child Left Behind Overview: Definitions, Requirements, Criticisms,

and More. Education Week, 10 Apr. 2017, www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/no-

child-left-behind-overview-definition-summary.html.

GreatSchools Staff | March 8, 2016 Print article. What the No Child Left Behind law

means for your child. Great Schools, 8 Mar.

2016, www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/no-child-left-behind/ (Links to an external

site.)Links to an external site..

 Alexa Hanson-Wagner 24 of 24

Connectusfundadmin. 14 Crucial Pros and Cons of the No Child Left Behind

Act.ConnectUS, 24 July 2015, connectusfund.org/14-crucial-pros-and-cons-of-the-no-

child-left-behind-act.

Strauss, Valerie. No Child Left Behinds Test-Based Policies Failed. Will Congress

Keep Them Anyway? The Washington Post, WP Company, 13 Feb. 2015,

www.washingtonpost.com/news.answer-sheet/wp/2-15/02/13/no-child-left-behinds-test-

based-policies-failed-will-congress-keep-them-anyway/?utm_term=.79996ccb33af

Hobart, Susan J. One Teacher's Cry: Why I Hate No Child Left

Behind. Progressive.org, 9 Aug. 2008, progressive.org/dispatches/one-teacher-s-cry-

hate-child-left-behind/.

Rizga, Kristina. Almost Everyone Hates No Child Left Behind. It's Finally about to

Change.Mother Jones, 23 June 2017, www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/12/no-child-

left-behind-overhaul/.