Obama approves reworked ‘No Child’ education law

Luther said the first thing that is going to have to happen is that DESE and other education associations across the state will have to look at the new law. President Obama and Congress are leaving No Child Left Behind policy and moving forward with the Every Student Succeeds Act.

The act also placed accountability on schools over the performance of their students.

The test, which stands for State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, was instituted as part of a federal requirement set forth by the No Child Left Behind Act.

State and local education officials are welcoming the flexibility they’ve been given to address poorly performing schools under federal legislation that replaces the 13-year-old No Child Left Behind law.

Obama calls the law a “Christmas miracle”.

The new law ends federally dictated accountability and improvement standards, but national math and reading exams are still in place. Patty Murray, D-Wash., ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is at center.

Murray, a former preschool teacher, said the work must now begin in “our schools, in our communities, in our states”, to find ways to make sure that all students achieve.

“There are a couple key questions that we really don’t have the answer to yet”, he said. But the individual states will decide what to do about underperforming schools and districts. “That’s the most critical testing that occurs in the overall continuum of education”, he continued.

However, each state is required to outline an education plan. Parents and teachers, however, complained that the law forced educators to “teach to the test” and that the testing had become a burden on children.

Three of the presidential candidates missed the Senate vote – Republican Sens. “Under No Child Left Behind, the federal government drove everything that happened in education and it was never our conversation as a state”. Standardized tests will not be the only factor considered when evaluating a school. But it was later criticized for a heavy-handed federal approach that imposed sanctions when schools came up short – leading teachers, administrators and others to worry that the high stakes associated with the tests were creating a culture of over-testing and detracting from the learning environment.