NCLB and Students with Disabilities Research Paper

NCLB and Students with Disabilities - Research Paper Example The enactment of NCLB changed the educational landscape for students with disabilities by introducing vast changes (Peterson and West, 2003). The act gave children with disabilities access to free public education improving their educational outcomes. The act has raised awareness of poor performance of many schools and students especially those with disabilities. According to the federal law, states, schools, and communities have to collect data on student performance, broken in categories of race, and factors such as the native language and disability (Peterson and West, 2003). Public schools are faced with the greatest challenge of producing good performance raising concern for families with children in these schools. Students with disabilities have low rates of high school completion, success and graduation with diplomas in the market as opposed to those without disabilities. The dropout rates for students with disabilities are high, and most of them fail to achieve a high school diploma making their dropout rates four times higher than for those without disabilities (Peterson and West, 2003). NCLB has helped states and schools change their strategies in order to prepare students with disabilities for challenges of higher learning and economic self-sufficiency (Peterson and West, 2003). This involves evaluating the federal and state level programs and strategies that enhance educational practice. This has in turn improved the valued educational outcomes for youth with disabilities.