No Child Left Untested becomes Every Student Succeeds

Turning a New Leaf for Education in 2016

      Since 2002, students and educators have lived under the flawed, over tested, and unfair No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. In December, bipartisanship came together in Congress to pass the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). President Obama signed it early in December and over the next few weeks, the Department of Education will work with states and districts to begin implementing the new law. ESSA returns important decision making for education back into the hands where it belongs- local educators and communities- while addressing students most in need and giving them the proper attention they deserve. Though it's not a perfect law, it is a step forward and offers a voice of educators in the policy making process, separating standardized testing from high-stakes decisions, and an "opportunity dashboard" to help close opportunity gaps throughout states.

 

     ESSA provides more opportunities for all students, by identifying factors of school success or student support to help identify and begin closing opportunity gaps. It requires state-designed accountability systems to include at least one factor of school success or student support (advanced coursework, school climate and safety, etc.) to ensure states report on opportunity gaps and take action to close them. It also requires the use of multiple measures of student success in elementary, middle, and high school.

 

         ESSA includes less focus on the high-stakes associated with standardized test, so students have more time to learn and teachers have more time to teach. ESSA continues required annual testing in grades 3-8; however, it eliminates NCLB’s rigid system of Adequate Yearly Progress aimed at 100% proficiency. Instead, it allows for state defined rules designed by committees of teachers, educators, and community members. The bill also allows districts to use different nationally recognized assessment in high school in place of of the state standardized tests. It has created a pilot program for state- designed assessment systems that allow for local district assessments driven by teaching and learning, not accountability alone, and allows all states that meet the criteria to participate. It maintains the rights of parents and guardians to opt their children out of statewide academic assessments as well as allows states to cap the time students spend taking annual tests.

      It also empowers educators with a stronger voice in educational and instructional decisions. It moves decision making to professionals who know the students they educate as well as maintaining support to ensure that zip codes don’t determine the quality of education. ESSA incentivizes support and interventions tailored to local needs while preserving the federal role in protecting the most vulnerable and at risk students. It recognizes the one-size-fits-all, standardized, and commercialized approach does not work. It calls for committees of educators, parents, and community members to work together to improve their local schools. Most importantly, ESSA prohibits the federal government from mandating teacher evaluations or defining teacher effectiveness.

 

      ESSA will help ensure that all students will have the support, tools, and time to learn that they need to succeed and that educators’ voices are part of the decision making process at all levels. It won’t change the assessment or accountability system overnight; however, educators and students alike will soon feel its effect. We, future teachers, have all been products of the tested generation. Students who are high school seniors this year have spent their entire K-12 experience under “No Child Left Untested.” This new Act in education is long overdue to fix the broken law a generation has been exposed to. It is time to give the next generation of students the resources and support they need.

     To compare ESSA to NCLB and get more information and facts, check it out here.

-Ashley Muscarella

Student PSEA State President

With more questions or comments contact Ashley: ashleyrose@pitt.edu