Obama Signs Sweeping Education Law

“With this bill, we reaffirm that fundamentally American ideal that every child- regardless of race, gender, background, zip code – deserves the chance to make out of their lives what they want”, Obama said. At the White House ceremony, he was joined by legislators, outgoing U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, his successor John King, and a middle school student.

Under the new law, named the Every Student Succeeds Act, students still must be tested in reading and math, but state and local officials would have greater leeway in determining how to respond to underachieving schools.

Teachers unions will push to end evaluation systems based on student test scores, a policy they say does not accurately measure good teaching.

The new law includes an amendment from U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., who served as a negotiator of the bill as a Member of the House and Senate Conference Committee. He was a chief architect of the bill along with Democratic Sen.

“When you have a national system, you really don’t have that kind of experimentation, so it really is a healthier model to have 50 educational systems operating rather than one”, Graves said. The law requires states to identify and work with the bottom 5% of its schools; schools where more than a third of students don’t graduate high school on time; and schools where specific groups of students consistently underperform. Graves said a limited federal role in education allows individual states the opportunity to apply different accountability procedures. Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, voted against ESSA, as did Sen. Cruz said the legislation doesn’t go far enough to get the federal government out of the nation’s schools.

However, students shouldn’t get too excited about the ending of the previous act, they will still be required to take federally standardized tests.

Ford said he met in Oklahoma City on Wednesday with representatives from the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, the Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration, bargaining units for state teachers and Hofmeister to begin discussions on the impact of ESSA’s passing.

Don’t start applauding yet, kids. One is it helps with after school programs, and two-and most importantly-it brings new resources towards creating early childhood education and pre-k programs.

No Child Left Behind: The 2002 law did not address the Common Core standards specifically, since they didn’t emerge until later that decade.

Most states received waivers, but not California.

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. But the Obama administration did play a role in expanding Common Core through waivers to No Child Left Behind requirements that encouraged states to adopt the standards.

Some say the law’s reduction of federal regulation will allow states and school districts to use their newfound freedom to avoid increasing student achievement.

It’s now up to the states. Testing will be one factor considered, but graduation rates and education atmosphere could also be factored in. This legislation represents an important step forward, but there is much more we can achieve together to expand full-service community schools that will help ensure that all of our children can learn at a high level and reach for future success.

“So it gives a little more flexibility to how we assess education and school districts across the state”.