Introduction
Welcome to WebQuest!
The purpose of this WebQuest is to encourage a deeper understanding of some of the different arguments supporting and opposing the No Child Left Behind Act. As teachers we will undoubtedly have to work under a number of different education policies throughout our careers, so hopefully this exercise will give you more familiarity with some of the key arguments that persist in the realm of education and enable you to form stronger arguments of your own and come to a better understanding of opposing view points. Another goal of this activity is to give you some practice using other strategies that might be helpful for you to use as teachers in the near future.
Task
NCLB Research and Conflict Resolution Bridge
Time: 10 min
For the first 6-7 minutes of this task, you and your team are going to conduct research using the links provided in this WebQuest and any prior knowledge that you may have in order to create your strongest argument in support of No Child Left Behind. Then in the remaining 3-4 minutes of the task, you will complete the conflict resolution bridge with the opposing team and cooperatively decide upon the best way to compromise. You may want to use some scratch paper to write out your ideas during the research segment in case you want to refer to them during the conflict resolution bridge.
Your argument should include why you think it is a good thing for our nation to have NCLB implemented (for the sake of this assignment, disregard your own personal opinions about NCLB and help your team support it), as well as any changes you think should be implemented in order to help it most effectively accomplish its goals.
Considering changes that would help make NCLB more effective should be helpful for coming to a compromise with the opposing group at the end of the activity.
Process
Overview of NCLB
https://www2.ed.gov/nclb/overview/intro/execsumm.html
Pros and Cons List
https://flowpsychology.com/10-pros-and-cons-of-the-no-child-left-behind-act/
Terry M. Moe: Privatization and Accountability
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b4JNVOpjcUHJJ8iThmnGmn_LvDyjWvuySsLoQx3OzvA/edit
Some Information on the Localization of Education
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UBRDeuVi3fS42ojnnX9kHk_8tidBXWx8oMPFQWsHMXg/edit
Time Magazine: "In Defense of No Child Left Behind"
http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/06/in-defense-of-no-child-left-behind/
Evaluation
I will not be evaluating you guys, but this is a step in WebQuest that teachers can use to put up grading rubrics and/or expectations of students. This allows students to review what is expected of them during the activity.
Conclusion
Hopefully throughout this lesson you and your team have become more knowledgeable about NCLB and some of the different arguments supporting and opposing this act. Many (perhaps all) of these arguments are still prevalent today (i.e. accountability, how to provide equitable schooling, localization and privatization of education, etc.), so I hope this activity gave you a little more insight to support your opinions about such issues in the field of education. You also have a bit more practice with the teaching strategies of WebQuest and the Conflict Resolution Bridge which might prove useful to you as teachers someday!
Closing Thoughts on NCLB:
Pros, Cons, and Synthesis Views on Some Major Arguments
Closing Thoughts on Strategies:
* Do you think that these strategies were useful for this particular concept? Do you think that they could be helpful to use for other concepts?
* Is there anything that you would change about this activity that you think would make it better?
Credits
(Credits pages can include any ending messages or references for any citations used in the WebQuest.)
Thank you for participating!:)
WebQuest Information