The new law includes a laundry list of prohibitions on the education secretary’s authority when it comes to setting standards, measuring teacher performance, and more. He is flanked by Senators Lama Alexander, R-Tennessee, left, and Patty Murray, D-Washington, right, whom Obama praised for their bipartisan leadership in guiding the bill through Congress.
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That crackdown is largely aimed at Obama’s education chief, Arne Duncan, who flexed his executive muscle more than any education secretary in history through NCLB waivers and other intiatives. “But in practice, it often fell short”. States will decide how to weigh tests, and whether and how to evaluate teachers. It failed our schools and teachers, but more importantly, it failed our kids.
“It’s not as if there weren’t some significant ideological differences on some of these issues”, the president said, to knowing laughter from the crowd of teachers, state officials, business groups, union leaders, civil rights advocates and lawmakers gathered for the bill signing.
“What I’m very happy about is that Congress is building in time for transitioning from the current system to the new system”, Fabrizio said. There’s also an emphasis on finding different kinds of tests that more accurately measure what students are learning.
That law set strict testing goals and targeted schools that didn’t make prescribed “adequate yearly progress” with various sanctions, principally by placing schools into Program Improvement, a condition which could lead to takeover.
The law provides for more transparency about test scores, meaning parents and others in the community will get a better look at how students in their states and in local schools are doing. It marks a recognition by many educators, states, researchers and districts that what happens in a school is much more complex than a single number could ever show.
Districts that serve high numbers of high-needs students, such as foster children, students with disabilities, or “delinquent” students, will have the flexibility to divert more of their federal funding to the appropriate schools.
The state’s response to the new law is also an increased focus on quality early education. They can set their own goals and timelines, although plans must be approved by the federal Department of Education.
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”. Since 2012, the administration has offered grants through its Race to the Top program for states that adopted strong academic standards for its students.
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Moran said he wanted to see additional cuts to the federal government’s role in state education. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill into law Thursday. Franken’s bipartisan provision improves the educational stability of students in foster care by improving collaboration between child welfare agencies and state and local educational agencies. While ESSA maintains the standardized testing schedule created by NCLB, it allows states to design their own accountability systems to measure a school’s success. “We are excited to witness and help usher in a new era of local control and reform at the federal level that recognizes the potential of all children”, Heins said in a statement.
