President Obama Signs Education Law, Leaving ‘No Child’ Behind

The chief goals of the Every Child Succeeds Act, which passed the House and Senate with overwhelming support, focuses on higher academic standards in states in order to push US schools to be on a par with worldwide competitors.

In an effort to revamp and strip out the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, on Thursday President Obama signed off on a bipartisan bill to change how schools are measured for success.

President Barack Obama signed the rewrite of the often criticized No Child Left Behind Act, which was first implemented under President George W. Bush, into law Thursday.

Obama called the proposal “a Christmas miracle” during a signing ceremony at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Superintendent of Highland Park, Buddy Freeman, said students were evaluated based on their performances in class. With the no child left behind law no longer in effect that requirement will no longer exist.

The new legislation places more power in the hands of state governments. The bill required annual math and reading tests for students in grades three through eight, and one annual test during high school.

“For the last 14 years, we’ve lived under No Child Left Behind’s flawed provisions, which left our educators, students, and parents frustrated”, education committee member U.S. Rep Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore.

Critics have long blasted “Common Core” standards as being elitist and hard for most students. Federal initiatives targeting school improvement over the years have all failed including the National Defense Education Act 1957; The Carnegie Report: A Nation at Risk in 1984 and America 2000 in 1992. “It is important that Congress protect the prerogative of states to set educational standards that best suit their students”.

“We will continue to be vigilant as work shifts to the states to fix accountability systems and develop teacher evaluation systems that are fair and aimed at improving and supporting good instruction”, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement.

The Common Core college and career-ready curriculum guidelines were created by the states but became a flash point for those critical of Washington influence in schools.

Speaking to the Senate this week, after the bill passed by a vote of 85-12, Alexander said the legislation will give more control back to states and local school districts. “It shouldn’t be coming down to one test because not everyone is a test taker”, said Rushefski. And it requires states to step in if a school falls into the bottom 5%, graduated less than 67% of students, or if subgroups are persistently falling behind.

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