High-Quality Elementary Education: NCLB and Social-Emotional Learning
This paper examines the components of a high-quality elementary education by reviewing recent literature on two key themes. First, it analyzes a peer-reviewed study on the Positive Action social-emotional and character development program implemented across 20 racially diverse elementary schools in Hawaii, assessing its effectiveness against control schools on multiple indicators of school quality. Second, it critiques the No Child Left Behind Act, drawing on scholarly and advocacy sources to argue that high-stakes standardized testing pressures teachers to teach to the test, potentially undermining meaningful learning and pushing low-scoring students toward dropout. The paper connects these findings to Piaget's theory of cognitive development at the concrete operational stage.
- Introduction: Framing questions about elementary education quality
- Social-Emotional and Character Development: The Positive Action Program: Hawaii PA program improves school quality indicators
- Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory and the PA Program: PA program linked to Piaget's concrete operational stage
- No Child Left Behind and High-Stakes Testing: NCLB pressures teachers to teach to the test
- Conclusion: High-stakes testing undermines genuine elementary learning
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What makes this paper effective
- Balances two distinct but related threads — a program-level intervention study and a national policy critique — and ties them together under the unifying question of what makes elementary education high-quality.
- Grounds the policy critique in both quantitative research (the Hawaii randomized trial) and practitioner-survey evidence (the Boston College Study), giving the argument multiple evidentiary layers.
- Connects an empirical program finding to a developmental theory (Piaget's concrete operational stage), demonstrating the ability to link applied research to theoretical frameworks.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses a compare-and-contrast structure at the macro level: an evidence-backed example of what works (the PA program) is set against a policy critique of what does not work (NCLB high-stakes testing). This rhetorical contrast strengthens the concluding argument without requiring the author to introduce additional sources.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a framing introduction, moves into a detailed description and results summary of the Positive Action program, connects those findings to Piaget's developmental theory, pivots to a critical analysis of No Child Left Behind and high-stakes testing using two separate sources, and closes with a synthesis conclusion. Five sections total, each focused on a single theme.
Introduction
What ingredients go into a high-quality education for elementary school children — and what does the literature reveal? What has been the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act in terms of achieving that seemingly elusive goal? These and other issues are addressed in this paper through a review of relevant scholarly and policy sources.
Social-Emotional and Character Development: The Positive Action Program
A research study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of School Health reveals that a school-wide "social-emotional and character development education program" can "significantly improve" the quality of the educational experience for elementary school children (Snyder, 2012, 11). The program, called "Positive Action" (PA), was conducted across 20 elementary schools in Hawaii — racially and ethnically diverse schools — between the 2002–2003 and 2005–2006 school years.
The six-unit PA program utilized in Hawaii involved 140 sessions — lasting 15 to 20 minutes each — per elementary grade per academic year (Snyder, 13). The total instructional time for PA lessons over the course of a school year was approximately 35 hours. The units presented included: (a) "self-concept"; (b) "physical and intellectual actions"; (c) "social-emotional actions for managing oneself responsibly"; (d) "getting along with others"; (e) "being honest with yourself and others"; and (f) "continuous self-improvement" (Snyder, 13).
The "control schools" used in this research did not implement the PA program. After one year, the PA schools "outperformed control schools" (Snyder, 16). Regarding Hawaii's School Quality Survey (SQS) goals, "teacher, parent, and student reports indicated that PA schools had significantly higher SQS scores" in comparison to the control schools (Snyder, 16). The PA program "consistently outperformed the control schools" on "nearly all 9 indicators of school quality" (Snyder, 18).
Works Cited
Berk, L. B. (2013). Development Through the Lifespan. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Snyder, F. J., Vuchinich, S., Acock, A., Washburn, I. J., and Flay, B. R. (2012). Improving Elementary School Quality through the Use of a Social-Emotional and Character Development Program: A Matched-Pair, Cluster-Randomized, Controlled Trial in Hawaii. Journal of School Health, 82(1), 11–20.
Tavakolian, H. (2012). The Impact of No Child Left Behind. Franklin Business & Law Journal, 2012(1), 70–77.
The National Center for Fair and Open Testing. (2011). Reports: High Stakes Testing Hurts Education. Retrieved February 1, 2014, from http://www.fairtest.org.
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