Here’s hoping that the “Christmas present”, as Tennessee Sen.
Advertisement
The new law, which passed the House and Senate with rare, resounding bipartisan support, would also expand access to high-quality preschool.
I told the stories I heard from CT teachers about the ridiculous amount of time they spent getting ready for their students to take standardized tests, or the parents who felt ashamed to send their child to a school that had been arbitrarily listed as an underperforming school. Only Congressman Jason Smith in the House and Roy Blunt in the Senate voted no.
On Thursday, President Barack Obama signed the overhaul of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
She says time and consistency will tell how the new program will work for local schools.
That effort, the 2002 law called No Child Left Behind, was a good-faith attempt to ensure that kids were learning something on their way to being graduated and sent out into the world or off to college.
The new legislation places more power in the hands of state governments.
The previous law was often criticized for its emphasis on testing. In the previous law, students were required to undergo tests in math and English every year from third to eighth grade and once all throughout high school, as well as one science exam in elementary, middle, and high school. Gone too is the requirement, added several years ago by the Obama administration, that states use student scores to evaluate teachers.
Yesterday (December 10th) the President made some change and revamped “No Child Left Behind”, according to CBS News.
The new law still requires an annual test in grades three through eight and grade eleven.
“Accountability is still part of this bill but a lot of those strings that were attached have been taken away and it’s going to allow us to do our job at the local level far better”, said Superintendent Terry Snyder from Fremont County School District number 25.
The new law won praise from Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Casselius.
This omission is clear in the law’s wording of “no Title I portability”. These provisions also support training for school staff and volunteers to help them recognize the signs of behavioral health problems in students and refer them for appropriate services.
This wording should come as no surprise for those on both sides of the issue as it was wrestled with while the bill was fine-tuned in recent months. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who introduced language in ESSA that eliminates the funding gap in the Title II program. We also have no doubt that the highest standards will be maintained in New Jersey, regardless of what new federal reform comes down the pipe.
This will likely please some, and not be enough for others.
2 Superintendent Jim Copeland said that while the goals of the law were laudable, the reality of dealing with it was “a headache”. Schopp says that’s exactly how South Dakota’s education system is designed.
Advertisement
That the end was coming was writ large on chalkboards (they still use those in schools, right?) across the country over the past few years.
