President Obama signs Every Student Succeeds Act into law

Education officials around the state are praising Congress for approving the Every Student Succeeds Act that President Obama signed into law Thursday after it passed the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.

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.

She said the law affirms that education is a civil right, “and it will fuel our own promising efforts in Minnesota to close achievement gaps and improve outcomes for all students, no matter where they live or what their economic circumstance”. “We know that early years can make a huge difference in a child’s life, so this law lays the foundation to expand access to high-quality preschools”.

Republicans backed the new law because it transferred power away from the federal government.

But the act gives states the freedom to choose how to evaluate teachers and how to hold schools accountable for students’ performance on these tests.

ESSA gives states greater control over education decisions and how to handle underperforming schools.

“It often forced schools and school districts into cookie-cutter reforms that didn’t always produce the kinds of results that we wanted to see”, Obama said.

“I think that’s a good conversation to have”, Dr. Woods said.

The law also focuses on developing well-rounded students, instead of only looking at test scores, said Spokane Public Schools Chief Academic Officer Steven Gering.

After more than a decade, an even broader bipartisan consensus was reached that the previous bipartisan consensus on the federal role in education didn’t work very well. “It’s about making schools a place where children can learn, teachers can teach, parents can participate”.

U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson (PA-05) today joined House and Senate leaders for the signing of the Every Student Succeeds Act by President Barack Obama.

However, students shouldn’t get too excited about the ending of the previous act, they will still be required to take federally standardized tests. “And then various states had their various teacher certification requirements at the same time, so it was kind’ve a double target for folks to shoot at”.

The new act still calls for the same amount of testing and still requires States’ to do something about those schools that don’t succeed.