No Child attempted to bring a uniform, national proficiency in subject matter, especially reading and math, by holding states and local school systems accountable for success or failure and by imposing strict standardized testing standards.
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The new educational law is a modification of the No Child Left Behind Act, which is expected to reduce standardized testing often administered to students.
But No Child Left Behind didn’t work in practice, something Republicans and Democrats in Congress agreed upon, and so they joined together this week to pass what is essentially a revision of the law, the Every Child Succeeds Act.
State Supt. Brian Whiston, who was formerly at the helm of the Dearborn Public Schools, said Michigan Department of Education officials will need time to digest the new legislation.
“Given the long history of state and local decisions that shortchange vulnerable students, this degree of flexibility is cause for serious trepidation”, she said in a statement. Superintendent Dr. Tim Mitchell said it’s time control is given back to educators at the state and local levels.
In strictly political terms, the fact that it was such a enthusiastic bipartisan effort may help it qualify as a Christmas miracle.
Wanda Cook-Robinson, superintendent of the Oakland intermediate school district, said she was “elated” that Congress acted to replace No Child Left Behind. American Graduate local partners have assembled a large body of knowledge about how to enable more students to stay in school and graduate, especially in those schools and among demographic groups with chronically high dropout rates. The new law had wide bipartisan support in Congress. They’ll be able to get more information about how students in their districts, and their states, are doing compared with others, and they’ll also see details on per-pupil funding, breaking it down by state and district.
However, each state is required to outline an education plan.
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The measure also ends the waivers the Obama administration has given to more than 40 -exemptions granted around the more onerous parts of No Child when it became clear that requirements such as having all students proficient in reading and math by 2014 would not be met.
