Monday, December 14, 2015

Erin McElhone 3rd Period: New Education Law

The No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) has been left behind and replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Obama signed the bipartisan education bill a few days ago, leaving the unpopular federal education law, NCLB, in the dust. A majority of states have for several years received waivers from the Obama administration, exempting them from some of the NCLB law's toughest requirements.The new law changes much about the federal government's role in education, largely by scaling back Washington's influence.While ESSA keeps in place the basic testing requirements of No Child Left Behind, it strips away many of the high stakes that had been attached to student scores. Student scores will no longer be used to evaluate teachers and the job of deciding how to fix underdeveloped schools shifted largely back to the states. Families will now also have more access to high-quality preschools for their kids.

Before the signing the new law, President Obama made clear that he believed the goals of NCLB — namely high standards, accountability and closing the achievement gap — were the right ones. But in practice, he said, the law fell short. The NCLB law was supposed to be the improved version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Seeing that the Government is constantly shifting who they want to have the most power over the education process (federal governments or state governments) I can't see this Law will stay in place much longer than its older sibling. 

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