An Alabama Education Leader weights in on the Every Student Succeeds Act signed into law Thursday by President Obama.
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Said President Barack Obama: “After more than 10 years, members of Congress from both parties have come together to revise our national education law – a Christmas miracle, a bipartisan bill signing”.
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. Interestingly, this could mean an end to Common Core, a perfectly reasonable set of standards in basic courses, devised by state school officials and the nation’s governors.
The bill would keep a key feature of No Child: the federally mandated statewide reading and math exams in grades three to eight and one such test in high school.
A statement from the NCEA pointed out that during the past few years, it has been involved, along with representatives of the US bishops and the Council for American Private Education, in discussions with congressional lawmakers about inequities in the No Child Left Behind Law “regarding participation of students and teachers in religious and private schools”. Patty Murray, D-Wash., ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is at center.
Teacher unions and school administrators have also been on board with the changes.
Alexander, a former USA education secretary, said he hoped Obama “will wrap a big red bow around it … and send it to the children and the 3.4 million teachers who are looking forward to it”.
“There are a couple key questions that we really don’t have the answer to yet”, he said. The new bill continues high standards for accountability, but allows districts to make their own decisions on to help struggling schools. Testing will be one factor considered, but other measures of success or failure could include graduation rates and education atmosphere. They will decide how poorly performing schools should be improved.
NCLB didn’t live up to the expectations that parents, teachers and students had when it was passed more than a decade ago.
That law was updated and enacted in 2002 as the No Child Left Behind Act.
It was praised for its main intent, which was to use annual tests to identify achievement gaps in learning and failing schools in need of support.
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It said that since 2001, “the benefits available to those in private schools have diminished significantly due to funding formulas in the last reauthorization and their interpretations in U.S. Department of Education regulations and policy”.
