Good Example Of Logic Diagramming Of The Editorial Arguments Essay

Critical Thinking

Introduction
Based on the editorial, the Los Angeles Times titled, No Child Left Behind overhaul should keep states accountable , the editorial board made statement on the No Child Left Behind Act based on the opinion of the board, the Act was a creation of a sound bipartisan political intentions but the intentions failed due to bad legislative drafting. The editorial piece proposes a rewrite of the law. The piece was a response to the efforts by Senator Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray to lobby for changes in Title I of the law. While the two senators have been pushing for divergent bills that would reauthorize the public schools’ accountability laws and enhance funding for schools in low income areas, they seem to be in favor of a compromise. According to the editorial, the compromise is necessary and evokes need to look into the No Child Left behind Act afresh.

The concept of Logic Diagramming provides that logical arguments comprise reasons offered to support a conclusion. In writing, as the case of the LA editorial piece, the presence or absence of a logical argument is revealed by comprehending the authors’ intentions of substantiating a statement or a claim by giving reasons or verifiable evidence. Generally, the reasons are outlines as verbal reports or opinions though they may not be primarily presented or published in declarative sentences.
There are several ways of adjudging the presence or absence of an argument under the Logic Diagramming. The first approach is analyzing whether the authors explicitly state or list the motives, evidence, justification or rationalization of a claim. In the case of the LA editorial piece, the article provides reasons to support the bid to change the law. The authors argue that the law needs overhaul because of; (1)”being onerous”, (2) “setting standards that were impossible to achieve” and (3) failing to outline the “states' responsibilities more clearly”.
Second, the presence of argument under the Logic Diagramming can be deduced by analyzing if the authors used argument indicators that signify the existence of some argument. This is indicated by the presence of common premises as well as conclusion indicators like, but, yet, as such, nevertheless, moreover etc. This evidence is outline in the sentences below (indicated by underlined premises): “But in the years since, the law has been widely criticized for being onerous and for setting standards that were impossible to achieve”.
Third, the presence of argument under the Logic Diagramming is shown if some passages implicitly provide a solution or answer to a claim. The authors may also pose a question For example, in the editorial, the board wrote, “This rewrite of No Child Left Behind should help ease the fretful anxiety and teach-to-the-test mentality that have overtaken too many schools”. The board also poses an irreverent question; “If no one intervenes when schools founder year after year, what recourse is there for families?”

Evaluation

The editorial is very balanced, non-ambiguous and clear. The board gave a background to the law, the success and the gaps. This gives it credibility. To ensure relevance, completeness, and logical soundness, the editorial made good suggestions such as addressing the challenges with the Act like non clarity on the powers and roles of the states. The argument presented is a good one. This is because the law has not effectively solved the educational access challenges and issues of the special education students. Harmonization of the law will also help address the implementation challenges and ensure greater efficiency and accountability for quality as opposed to quantity education.

References

Paige, R. (2002). No Child Left Behind. U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from
http://sde.state.ok.us/nclb/pdf/Reference/Desktop.pdf.
The Times Editorial Board (8 April 2015). No Child Left Behind overhaul should keep states
accountable http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-no-child-left-behind- 20150408-story.html