With the stroke of a pen, President Obama leaves behind “No Child Left Behind” for the “Every Students Succeeds Act”.
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The new law replaces the No Child Left Behind Act, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2001.
Under the new education act, states can now set their own goals and accountability standards and interventions for failing schools. The Texas legislature will now have control over the level of accountability for schools and students if they perform poorly on standardized tests, or even pass those decisions on to individual districts.
With regard to the new law’s encouragement to states to limit the time students spend testing, Rivera said department staff are working on revising the state exams given to third through eighth graders to shorten the tests while maintaining their validity. A historic day for our children’s future!
The Senate passed the bill that some say is a “fix” for the No Child Left Behind Act, which has now been retired.
“However, we are hopeful that this is an opportunity for us to pivot away from sanctioning schools and towards providing the resources and support schools need to actually strengthen their systems and improve learning for our most vulnerable students”, she said.
The new law won’t allow the federal government to mandate a particular set of academic standards like the oft-criticized Common Core.
Byrne said this is a win for every child in Alabama and it’s something his constituents have been wanting for years.
And while there’s no confirmation that Louisiana will completely toss Common Core to the curb…members of the State Teacher Federation say this is a giant step for educating Louisiana’s children.
The new law still requires an annual test in grades three through eight and grade eleven.
The law has several components, including reforming testing standards, educational funding and ensuring the drop-out rate continues to decline.
The President explained that Every Student Succeeds lays the foundation to expand access to “high-quality pre-schools”.
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The college and career-ready curriculum guidelines were created by the states, but became a flashpoint for those critical of Washington’s influence in schools. “It led to too much testing during classroom time, forced schools and school districts into cookie cutter reforms that didn’t produce the kind of results that we wanted to see”.
