[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
The State and Federal Reform in Public Schools
Since President Bush signed No Child Left Behind (NCLB) into law, all states have a plan in place to ensure that all students become proficient at reading and math and that achievement gaps are closed between students of different socio-economic backgrounds. States, districts, and schools are using their unique accountability plans to measure the progress of student achievement, report student and school progress to parents, identify for improvement those schools not making adequate yearly progress, provide support for the improvement of schools and districts, and provide options -- including public school choice and tutoring -- for children in underperforming schools
Government bodies, corporations and foundations have contributed huge sums of money through grants for specialized school improvement efforts since the Federal administration’s release of A Nation at Risk eleven years ago. A great deal of money has been spent on school reform programs, but measurable results are limited (Jacqueline, 2003). Many educators are suspicious of corporate philanthropic motives and doubt their sincerity. The most prominent contribution, to date, is a plethora of "Adopt-a-School" programs, a concept that often violates the basic premise of equal educational opportunity.
In most cases, young people are at the mercy of their assigned school’s "adopted" sponsor for program enhancements. If students are fortunate enough to attend a school with a corporate or organizational partner that fosters a program in their area of interest, the partnership can work very well. Opportunities are frequently denied to some students by an emerging network of inequality in which school partnerships are frequently tied to single schools and the students assigned to that building (Jacqueline, 2003). Efforts to link student interests to business partnerships should not be overridden by geographic convenience. For example, every effort should be made to get the student with an interest and aptitude in allied......................
