The bill, which passed both chambers with broad bipartisan support, replaces the current elementary and secondary education law “No Child Left Behind”.
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It is also recognized as a remedy to the “one-size-fits-all” educational approach of the past administration, which according to Obama, despite having the right goals, often “fell short in practice”.
As Asp mentions above, the law allows seven states to participate in a pilot project to develop new ways of assessing students – these could be a combination of locally developed tests and state tests that may not be given every year to every student.
“The bill clearly reflects a sentiment among, I think, the American people that the federal government has been too heavily involved in education, especially under the No Child Left Behind Act”, he tells OneNewsNow.
“This is a big step in the right direction, a true bipartisan effort”, he explained.
No Child Left Behind introduced standardized testing to gauge students in reading and math, but it became more controversial than effective. Lamar Alexander from Tennessee, felt the government was micromanging education policy. Obama help it up as an “example of how bipartisanship should work”, noting that opposing sides had compromised to reach a deal.
“That’s something that you don’t always see here in Washington”, Obama said.
“But of course, now the hard work begins”.
The new law includes an amendment from U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., who served as a negotiator of the bill as a Member of the House and Senate Conference Committee.
This bill stops the federal government from mandating Common Core and returns the decision making power back to the states, local schools districts, teachers and parents.
Don’t start applauding yet, kids.
State education officials in Harrisburg are already saying tests won’t be the only standards used. John B. King, Jr., a deputy education secretary and former commissioner of NY state public schools, will succeed Duncan and will oversee the implementation of the new law. So we had to spend a lot of time planning to take a test, said Garrison.
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– Establish new resources for proven strategies that will spur reform and drive opportunity and better outcomes for America’s students. Under the new legislation, states will be required to intervene to improve the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools and schools that graduate less than two-thirds of their students.
