Final answer:
NCLB has been criticized for exacerbating educational inequality by penalizing under-resourced schools which often serve the neediest students, potentially leading to greater inequity.
Step-by-step explanation:
Critics have charged that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act undermined equality of opportunity because it ended up punishing under-resourced schools. These schools often faced the dual challenges of fewer resources and the task of educating the neediest students. NCLB's reliance on standardized testing to measure school success and allocate federal funds led to the identification and potential penalization of schools that couldn't meet the prescribed standards, many of which were in low-income areas and served disadvantaged students.
Under the NCLB Act, schools that failed to demonstrate adequate yearly progress faced sanctions, including a loss of federal funding, which critics argue only worsened the conditions for schools needing the most help. The fact that schools in economically disadvantaged areas typically have fewer resources to begin with, along with other long-standing disparities in education stemming from socioeconomic and racial inequalities, have made it difficult for these schools to succeed under the NCLB framework.
Former President Obama's Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, sought to address these issues with reforms that aimed to move away from prescriptive requirements towards more supportive measures for schools. However, the belief that competition, increased academic standards, and data-driven approaches could greatly improve educational outcomes remains contentious.