Obama: Christmas miracle, schools on a new course of accountability

President Barack Obama called the law “a big step in the right direction”, and its bi-partisan support in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate suggested that is was high-time for some change in education policy.

President Obama signs a new measure saying “every child, regardless of race, income, or zip code, deserves a shot at a great education”.

Students in the USA ranked fourteenth in education among developed nations as many schools in the US failed to meet the standards set by the No Child Left Behind law.

With regard to the new law’s encouragement to states to limit the time students spend testing, Rivera said department staff are working on revising the state exams given to third through eighth graders to shorten the tests while maintaining their validity.

Wyoming is one of seven states who decided not to obtain a No Child Left Behind waiver, something Balow says is important moving forward.

“These goals have always been part of our commitment here at the Washoe County School District, and we welcome this new system of measuring our progress”, said WCSD Superintendent Traci Davis. The Texas legislature will now have control over the level of accountability for schools and students if they perform poorly on standardized tests, or even pass those decisions on to individual districts.

The new act “Every Student Succeeds” doesn’t go in to effect until the 2017- 18 school year.

A reauthorization of the 50-year-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the ESSA has been lauded as an end to the test-and-punish regime ushered in by NCLB and as a landmark rollback in federal involvement in public education.

The new law, she said, will “help more students get the chance to learn, grow and thrive in the classroom and beyond”.

“It gives states the flexibility to create accountability systems that work for their students, ending the federal government’s punitive role in education”, Curbelo said on the law.

The federal law will likely require Minnesota to adopt some policy changes, but the state’s education agency is still sorting out what it will need to do.

Provide more children access to high-quality preschool. Perversly, they were not focusing on every kid.