In an effort to revamp and strip out the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, on Thursday President Obama signed off on a bipartisan bill to change how schools are measured for success. U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, 1st Congressional District, is in the background in red. Alexander was a chief author of the bill along with Democratic Sen. And he didn’t apologize for how Education Secretary Arne Duncan implemented it. “Sometimes, in the nicest possible way, he’s gotten on people’s nerves because he’s pushed them and prodded them”, Obama said.
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“This state loves local control, and so the hope is that we turn control over to our local school districts, our local school boards”, said Marisa Perez, the State Board of Education member representing San Antonio. Many education advocates, teachers, and administrators saw No Child Left Behind’s top-down approach, which stressed test scores above all else, as leaving failing schools – and students – in the lurch.
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.
Under the new act, schools will still have to test students in third through eighth grades and again in high school, but teachers have more flexibility when it comes to doing the testing.
Schools will still be responsible for how their students perform under the ESSA, but it will now be up to individual states to determine how to enforce penalties for student performance. “I appreciate that this legislation restores the proper balance between the role of states and the federal government in education accountability”, Wise said in a statement.
For Texas students, that could mean less fear and worry over their standardized testing each year, a state assessment called the STAAR test.
The legislation requires that test scores be broken down by race, family income and disability status.
“I know there’s a push for a reduction of testing”. ESSA continues to provide funding and accountability for some of our students with greatest needs – those in poverty, learning English and those struggling to meet the Colorado Academic Standards.
The law also prohibits the federal government from imposing Common Core standards – which critics argued were too hard for most students to achieve. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.
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“This does what Louisiana has always known is the right thing to do”.
