Inquiry Project: Introduction and Annotated Bibliography

Public school curriculums have been greatly affected by legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act. While reading and writing continue to be core subjects that are heavily emphasized (xxx; xxx; xxx), the implementation of standardized testing has changed the way teachers teach English. NCLB outlines very detailed and specific guidelines and expectations for teaching reading and writing; the curricula are centered around the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Language Arts Literacy. Many scholars, experts, and educators agree that, as a result, teachers have felt curricular and instructional constrictions (xxx; xxx; xxx).

The purpose of this article is to explore where these constrictions lie and how they have affected both the teachers and their students. I have asked Language Arts teachers to evaluate their opinions of NCLB and propose any changes to the legislation that they feel are necessary. As a future English teacher, this is one of the many burning questions I have asked myself throughout the course of this semester. By understanding how NCLB affects my content area, I hope to learn how to become a successful English teacher in order to better serve the needs of my future students.




Pressley, Michael, Billman, Alison K., Perry, Kristen H., Reffitt, Kelly E., & Reynolds, Julia Moorhead (Eds.). (2007) Shaping Literacy Achievement: Research We Have, Research We Need. New York: Guilford.

This book contains a collection of essays that analyze Literacy achievement in public schools and the research that has been done on it. Several chapters summarize and evaluate the programs, such as Reading First, that were implemented because of No Child Left Behind. The contributors discuss in depth what the research on teaching and learning reading and writing says.

They also talk about what research still needs to be done, while providing recommendations to improve the existing educational policies. The writers seem to focus particularly on the flaws within the research used to support NCLB legislation and suggest practical directions in which to take future research and programs, including the development of a “second-generation Reading First-style program.”

This book has some great insights into what the experts think about what NCLB says about reading and writing. It also helps to address an inconsistency in one of the four pillars of NCLB, which emphasizes the use of proven teaching methods, as it relates to Language Arts/Literacy in particular.