In 2001, a bill called the No Child Left Behind Act was voted into law. Former President George W. Bush was in office at the time this bill became law. He signed the final signature to make the bill a law. This law was created during a time of national concern about the academic standing of schools in the United States. Requires all public schools to test their students annually in reading, math and science. The goal of this law was for every school to achieve academic proficiency during the 2013-2014 school year (Education Week). Even though NCLB was supposed to be helpful and provide a better education for students, it puts enormous pressure on students, suppresses the creativity of teachers, has made a difference everywhere, some places have experienced positive and some negative differences, and has inspired projects of future laws equally well thought out, but not enough to make a positive difference anywhere. The pressure placed on public school students today is incredible. Principals and school counselors enter classrooms and inform students how critical it is to do their best on these assessments. They explain that if the class as a whole does not achieve a certain goal, then the school and teachers get into trouble and lose money (Terry). Principals know that it is important to inform students of the challenges they may face if they do not strive to do well. What they may not realize is that as their message gets to students, they may take it a little too much to heart and feel like they have to be perfect so their school doesn't get shut down. As a student who lived being told about the consequences of not p...... middle of paper ...... that needed to be worked on. The No Child Left Behind Act should have been helpful, but instead it added stress to the lives of young students, stifled creative teaching styles, made a wide range of differences from excellent scores to school closures, and stimulated a future of laws that improve only some parts of national education. When you consider all of these factors, you can see that although the NCLB law was intended to do good, it created some very negative consequences. Works cited “NCLB making a difference in Kansas.” No child left behind. Np, nd Web. December 1, 2013."No child left behind." Education Week. Np, Aug. 4, 2004. Web. Dec. 1, 2013. "No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) | ESEA." National Education Association. Np, nd Web. November 30, 2013. Terry, Nickolas. “NCLBA Survey.” Survey. December 2, 2013.Trussell, Pam. Personal interview. December 2. 2013.