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.
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This measure passed the House of Representatives on December 2 with broad bipartisan support, and the president has indicated he will sign the bill into law. “But in practice, it often fell short”.
Every Student Succeeds shifts power back to the states on education – the opposite of No Child Left Behind, which was seen as forcing “a one-size-fits-all” standard on school districts nationwide.
“With this bill, we reaffirm that fundamentally American ideal that every child- regardless of race, gender, background, zip code – deserves the chance to make out of their lives what they want”, Obama said.
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.
Kerr said “If you think about our military dependents that have to bounce around and follow their parents – those common standards were good for them”.
The Colorado Democrat – and former Superintendent of Denver Public Schools – helped write the measure and was a member of the House-Senate conference team that negotiated the final version.
But even as measurements and some standards are left to states, the new law will retain one important aspect that might be unsettling still to states, particularly those in the South where President Obama is most unpopular. Patty Murray of Washington state and Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia. The feds pushed standardized testing, making sure students met certain achievement levels. “This is a deserved victory for public education because the Every Student Succeeds Act will ensure all students have equal opportunity to a high-quality public education regardless of ZIP Code”.
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The new law also clearly specified which schools will be needing intervention. The new act allows states to tailor their assessment systems to each school district. And it requires states to step in if a school falls into the bottom 5%, graduated less than 67% of students, or if subgroups are persistently falling behind. While ESSA officially marks the end of the NCLB era, the majority of states have for several years received waivers from the Obama administration, exempting them from some of the law’s toughest requirements.
