Pedagogy

No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
By being connected to the field of education, I have come to know a lot about the disparity among the students in the United States. As I am currently doing my practicum in Paul Revere Elementary school, I have to be educated with many of the ways through which the disparity among the children all around United States could be decreased. No Child Left behind Act (NCLB) is a Congress Act that has come to my awareness that is proving to be a reducer of the achievement gap. Here are some of the pointers that came to my understanding as the most important subjects regarding the No Child Left behind (NCLB) that should be discussed among educators.

Achievement Gap and NCLB
Achievement gap is the most basic root cause of the educational problems in the country. Achievement gap is referred to the disparity of education level among students of different racial classes. The achievement gap in United States is in particular considered to be the gap between the students of different races. Such a gap stands as a toughest challenge for most education policymakers. But it is noted that since the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has been signed that had been a great reduction figure in the achievement gap. According to the Study released by Centre on Education Policy (CEP) examined that the achievement gap had been reduced to 74 in all criteria of research among different races in United States (Stewart).

The goals and the purposes of NCLB had managed to reduce a good amount of achievement gap between the students of different races in United States. Reduction in the achievement gap has been successfully done by NCLB by following

Annual testing of the standard of students in reading and mathematics from 3rd to 8th grades.
By providing sanctions to the school which fail to maintain the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).
By providing technical assistance to the teachers and institutes to help the students remove disparity (Stewart).

By using the scientific based programs for the students who are not able to meet a good standard of learning etc.

According to the educational psychology readings, No Child Left behind (NCLB) Legislation greatly put stress on the teaching methods and approaches and later part of the legislation is based upon the emphasis for reading and solving mathematics.  Together the two parts of the legislation had a great impact in attaining better results in schools throughout United States. The impact of NCLB over adolescents, teachers and children over the public schools have been productive and positive as the NCLB has introduced targets for everyone that should be achieved in case of achieving Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) (Stewart).

Developmentally Appropriate Practice and NCLB
In my point of view, people in the field of education must also make sure that an educator must be fully aware of the nature No Child Left behind (NCLB) that is conductive to developmentally appropriate practice (DAP). The objectives of the No Child Left behind (NLCB) Act also includes the aim of the DAP. Developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) focuses nurturing children on the basis of their cognitive and social understanding of human patterns.  The learning and reading instructions that have been implemented by the NLCB Act in different schools have been a wide way to conduct DAP (Lisa).

There also a debate regarding the conductivity of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in terms of testing the students Adequate Yearly progress (AYP) on the basis of single testing graph rather than analyzing the children ability on the basis of their social participation. Social participation of the students and understanding different patters of an important component of Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP). NLCB is not conductive to developmentally appropriate practice in terms of its testing criteria (Stewart).

A number of accountability issues were raised As the No Child Left behind (NCLB) Act was signed by Bush on 8th January 2002. There were 50 states that were sheltered by the No Child Left behind (NCLB) Act to work upon the provisions of the legislature but it was not made clear to the different schools as to what the instructions was to be implemented. Even after several months of enactment of No Child Left behind (NCLB) the documentation issues continued that included more in the non conductivity of DAP.

Teaching Methods and NCLB
In my observation and analysis of the methods that are used for effective learning and teaching namely, child-centered and   teacher-centered approaches play vital role in educating students.

Child-Centered Approach
The focus of learning and teaching method is on teacher and instructor both at the same time. Children are free to talk with the teacher about the model being studies without any monitoring. Students in this approach are free to work in teams and groups. Students get the result of their attention and understanding towards the model by effective and quick feedback of the instructor (Lisa, Preparing Teachers).

Teacher-Centered Approach
The second approach towards effective learning and teaching is teacher-centered approach in which the focus of the method is on the teacher. The teacher has to select models of his choice where students listen to the teacher. Students are evaluated on the basis of student utterance. The models are basically selected by the teacher as to what the instructor regard is most important about the particular model (Lisa, Preparing Teachers).

Through my own analysis of the overview of the No Child Left behind (NCLB) Act, I could easily conclude that the child-centered approach is more acceptable in terms of teaching the students and reducing achievement gap among different classes of background of students.

The theory of constructivism itself encourages the different learning experiences for students. The theory of constructivism itself acknowledges that child-centered approach provides a better count of learning experiences to the students rather than the learning experiences provided through the teacher-centered method of learning.  For example, the statistics that were conducted by the NCLB Act demonstrates that a considerable decrease in the achievement gap is due to the fact that the NCLB Act highlighted the significance of child-centered approach of teaching.

Effect of School on the Self Esteem of Children
A school plays a vital role in the cognitive development of the children and directly affects the self-esteem positively and negatively. Great researchers in the field of education have shown results that the IQ levels of the children who do not go to schools are considered to be low in comparison with those students who go to school regularly. The studies in the field of education throughout the world have shown that school makes a vibrant change in the cognitive development of students. I had observed the fact myself in the school that students gain IQ level due to the classroom activities and school experiences. According to my observation at Paul Revere Elementary school, students who get fewer marks in the class activities are affected negatively by the classroom experiences and are discouraged at times. Such experiences of students contribute in the achievement gap among students coming from different races. Educators must appoint the techniques of encouraging students by appointing the child-centered approach of learning as described by the No Child Left behind Act (NCLB).

For example, I observed that a student name Mike was having trouble in answering the names of the birds while the rest of the class answered quickly. I noticed that Mike was disappointed and could not talk to other students on the next class of general knowledge. My approach towards helping Mike was to give him the task to become a demonstrator of the birds chart so that he can have self-confidence that he can still learn the names.

Teachers and counselors are encouraged to help students in getting away with the trouble of understanding the shortcomings. Moreover families must appoint the approach of a friendly teacher who can reduce the pressure of children by talking and understanding what the child is going through. Communication is the best way to solve even the complex situations which are complicated for one to understand. It is better to give a chance to the child to have a dialogue with the teachers, counselors and family so that he could learn to communicate and get advises to work upon (Stewart).

Internship Site Information
The Paul Revere Elementary school where I am currently doing my internship is situated at140 West Guinida LN Anaheim, California. The mission of the school is to accelerate academic social cognitive development of students and providing them with the opportunities to get better chances to get encouraged for well-being. The school is a public and is currently serving 916 students in grades k-6 and comes under the Anaheim city School District. The Academic Performance Index (API) measures the school performance from 200 to 1000 points as tested by the No Child Left behind (NCLB) Act. The diversity of the ethnicity of the Paul Revere Elementary School includes 94 Hispanic, 3 Asian Pacific, 3 Whites, 1 Blacks and 1 American Indians. In terms of Gender statistics, there are 50 or male and 50 of female students being taught by the school (Education.com,INC).

As being a fresh educator in the field of academics, NCLB provides me with enough knowledge to conduct practice and appoint different approaches towards safe and effective teaching for the students coming from different classes of society. NCLB had managed to play a vital role in decreasing the achievement gap and it does guide the educators to appoint approaches towards effective teaching. NCLB Act must also be focusing the patters of student learning through their social participation and conduct developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) in whole. All my understanding of the knowledge encompasses an ability in me to practically implement it on the site of my internship.