A bill that would replace No Child Left Behind and shift education policy to state and local control passed its first hurdle Wednesday night, in the U.S. House of Representives.
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“I’m particularly happy that we’ve moved away from mandated Common Core standards and high-stakes testing, instead allowing states and local school district to determine the best way to meet the educational needs of all students, especially our most vulnerable children”, Maloney said.
Ron Dykes, Washington County’s director of schools, said the relaxation of the use of standardized tests in teacher assessments, if approved by states, should give educators more freedom to teach.
The Education Department may not give states incentives to use any particular set of teaching standards such as the curriculum guidelines found in Common Core. However, states will still be responsible for intervening in schools which rank in the bottom five percent nationally or who graduate less than two-thirds of their students.
The legislation also provides eligible school districts the ability to have federal, state, and local funds follow students to the schools they attend, which will encourage excellent schools to enroll students who are harder to serve.
The Department of Education would only be authorized to verify that states’ school accountability plans adhere to the law. The congresswoman cited provisions that uphold funding for poorer school districts, which compromise a majority of her congressional district.
“If they can reduce those regulations they put on us and allow us to run our own schools, I think it’ll be better”, Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey said. The Every Student Succeeds Act will formally grant all states the flexibility to do so. President Obama is expected to sign it.
Some conservatives balked, saying the bill didn’t go far enough to dismantle federal influence in schools. One of the more discouraging aspects of the congressional deliberations, for example, was the lack of appetite on either side of the aisle for vigorous teacher evaluations that take into account student achievement. Officials called the compromise now in play an improvement over the House bill – and a version passed by the Senate.
“This legislation ensures our young people are getting the education they deserve by working to close achievement gaps, reducing the unfair over-reliance on standardized testing, and giving teachers and schools the resources they need”, he said.
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Every Student Succeeds Act on Wednesday. The deal in the works, the Every Student Succeeds Act, is shaping up to be a clear improvement.
The legislation would maintain a key feature of the George W. Bush-era law: annual reading and math testing of children in grades three through eight and once in high school. The Obama administration nonetheless granted waivers to 42 states, including CT, that absolved them from complying with No Child’s toughest requirement that all students show proficiency in math and reading by 2014.
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Track the data for racial, ethnic and other student subgroups and take action in those schools where subgroups are struggling.
