Power to the states: Education law rewrite passes Congress

Dubbed the Every Child Achieves Act, the legislation would retain federal math and reading standards but allow states to decide how to measure student and school performance.

The end of No Child Left Behind is at hand, as the U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed an education reform bill that gives more control to the states, with funding for after-school programs, early childhood education and new initiatives in science, technology, engineering and math.

States can now develop their own accountability system to measure a school’s performance.

Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., a senior member of the House Education Committee, also lauded the bill’s passage in a written statement. The secretary can not force requirements on schools if they are not in law, such as mandating teacher evaluations.

Local education officials and stakeholders agree: More localized control of standards and enforcement could pave the way for a more comprehensive, holistic look at student achievement with a minimized emphasis on testing. The bill now awaits a signature from President Obama, who is widely expected to sign it into law. The state would intervene in the lowest five percent of schools with high dropout rates. Lamar Alexander from Tennessee, felt the government was micromanging education policy.

“You’ll see states taking the opportunity to serve kids better, meaning it’s not just a conversation about labeling schools but also a conversation about when a school’s not doing right by kids”, said Chris Minnich, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Sens. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, and James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, voted for the bill.

“There were certain aspects of No Child Left Behind that the (State Board of Education ) felt were noble and lofty in terms of goals … but a utopian vision to embed into federal education law”, said Charles Pyle, a Virginia Education Department spokesman. All 12 members of the state’s congressional delegation voted for it. “I’ve been listening a long time to angry parents, students who are upset and teachers in tears because the No Child Left Behind law is not working”, said Sen.

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

The legislation, which passed by an overwhelming 85-12 majority in the Senate Wednesday, overhauls George W. Bush’s contentious “No Child Left Behind Act”.

“This bill is a strong bipartisan effort to devolve power away from Washington and toward states, communities and the teachers and parents who are at the front line of education”, Johnson said.

“Educators will have a seat at the table when it comes to making decisions that affect their students and classrooms”, NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia said.

The Obama administration has cobbled together its education program through a cumbersome system of state waivers to NCLB requirements, along with incentives such as 2009’s Race to the Top and its controversial Common Core curriculum.

Hard issues remain: how to ensure high-quality teachers, how to get those teachers into schools that most need them, how to raise the achievement of millions of struggling students.

The U.S. Senate will vote on a new education bill sponsored by Sen. The newly reauthorized education law could change that.

“One of the reasons they have been leaving the classroom is that they are so disillusioned by test and punish”, Garcia said. In many ways, the conference report was worse than the original Senate bill-removing the few good provisions from the House bill that would have allowed some Title I portability for low-income students as well as a parental opt-out from onerous federal accountability standards. 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.