No Child Left Behind Act replaced

Yesterday (December 10th) the President made some change and revamped “No Child Left Behind”, according to CBS News.

A bipartisan education bill signed into law by President Barack Obama on Thursday will grant states a larger role in overseeing K-12 education.

One key feature of No Child remains: Students will still take the federally required statewide reading and math exams.

Sen. Al Franken says, “This is a big improvement over No Child Left Behind”.

Cato Institute education analyst Neal McCluskey writes the measure – which has disappointed many conservatives – does at least eliminate NCLB’s “uber-intrusive” onerous state test to measure students’ “adequate yearly progress”. It will also establish new resources to test promising practices and replicate proven strategies that will drive opportunity and better outcomes for students.

Obama praised the ESSA as a law that focuses on boosting the high school graduation rate while preparing students for college and the workforce. High standards, accountability, closing the achievement gap, making sure every child is learning and not just some.

David Young said district leaders are still trying to figure out the nuts and bolts of the law.

Iowa Department of Education Director Ryan Wise is on board with the new law. Dougherty County School administrators think the new law is a step in the right direction.

Every Student Succeeds goes into effect in 2016.

The other part of the miracle might be that the legislation – which aims to do away with excessive school testing and give states and local governments more control of schools by freeing them from federal mandates – also provides something for Catholic school students.

“In South Dakota we expect that we’re going to care about each child…we hope to continue to do that whatever the federal legislation happens to be”, Danielsen said. “Under No Child Left Behind, the federal government drove everything that happened in education and it was never our conversation as a state”.

It will be several months before school districts are able to enact plans created by the state under the new law. It becomes more of a state decision.

School administrators say they are happy that students will be graded by their overall performance in school.

Without having federal regulation on Common Core standards, Louisiana may finally get a chance to stop focusing so much on standardized testing, and start focusing on educating the students.