President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act into law Thursday. The bill replaces No Child Left Behind and is the first major federal education reform in almost 14 years.
“The goals of No Child Left Behind … were the right ones: high standards, accountability, closing the achievement gap, making sure that every child was learning,” Obama said at the signing ceremony. “But in practice, it often fell short. … This bill makes long overdue fixes to the last education law, replacing the one-size fits all approach to reform with a commitment to provide every student with a well-rounded education.”
Here are details of what’s inside the Every Student Succeeds Act.
State Control
The Wall Street Journal calls the act “the largest devolution of federal control to the states in a quarter-century.” Under No Child Left Behind, federal policy dictated the definition of a failing school and how those schools would be handled. The Every Student Succeeds Act repeals that process. In its place, states are still required to identify and do something about failing schools. But they have wide flexibility to design their own plans.
Testing
Under No Child Left Behind, students had to be tested annually in math and reading from third grade to eighth grade, then once more in high school. That requirement remains in the Every Student Succeeds Act. To reduce the focus on testing, however, schools are also measured by other factors, such as graduation rates.
Also, the typical student takes eight standardized tests per year, but only two are federally required. The Every Student Succeeds Act gives states funding to conduct audits that will help eliminate unnecessary tests. The New York Times editorial board’s endorsement of the bill focused on the testing reforms.
Executive Power
All but eight states are operating under waivers from No Child Left Behind’s penalties. The waivers have been granted by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. But there’s a catch: the waivers are granted on the condition of adopting certain education reforms.
The Every Student Succeeds Act ensures the unreasonable and outdated expectations of No Child Left Behind are no more, so that this waiver system can no longer be used to bully states into complying with White House policy preferences. The act also explicitly prohibits the Secretary of Education from incentivizing or punishing states for adopting specific academic standards. If things go awry, as they so often do in government, with the Every Student Succeeds Act, the Department of Education can still grant waivers, but those waivers cannot be conditioned on specific reforms.
“It moves decisions about whether schools and teachers and students are succeeding or failing out of Washington, D.C., and back to states and communities and classroom teachers where those decisions belong,” Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said of the new law Tuesday.
Common Core
Using the aforementioned waivers, the Department of Education has been pressuring states into adopting the controversial Common Core education standards. Most, but not all, of the states operating under Department of Education waivers have adopted Common Core. Now that the Secretary of Education cannot incentivize or punish states based on their academic standards, the pressure to adopt Common Core is gone.
Implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act doesn’t mean Common Core is instantly repealed in all the states that adopted it under pressure from the Department of Education. States will still have to go through their own processes to repeal or revise their standards.
School Choice
School choice is largely a state issue, but advocacy groups are still celebrating the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act. For the most part, groups are pleased education power is getting sent back to states. In theory, families might have more choices among public schools if the schools are able to differentiate themselves, with less of their operation dictated by top-down federal regulations.
A few failing efforts were made on the Senate floor to allow low-income students to use their federal funding to attend the school of their choice. This was included in the version of the bill that passed the House, but it was dropped in the conference committee.
Charter Schools
The federal charter school program now has dedicated funding for replicating and expanding high-performing charter schools. State grants can now be administered by governors and charter support organizations, rather than just state education agencies. They are also free to hire staff that meets their own unique needs. “This is an exciting moment for the charter school movement,” President and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Nina Rees said Wednesday.
On the other hand, Jeanne Allen, founder and president-emeritus of the Center for Education Reform, called the charter school provisions a “double-edged sword.” Allen told the Washington Examiner, “There’s more money, there’s increased funding for start-up grants. … [However,] the charter grant program has become very formulaic and very regulatory.”
Evidence-Based Reforms
Results for America, a group that focuses on using evidence-based reforms in government, praised the Every Student Succeeds Act. “The emphasis on evidence in the Every Student Succeeds Act is a big win not only for students, but for our nation’s education system,” CEO and Co-Founder Michele Jolin said. A new grant program will develop and replicate evidence-based innovations. Competitive grant programs under the Department of Education will give priority to applicants using evidence.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
