Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

On December 10, 2015 President Obama signed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This act was a replacement for No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. NCLB was a representation of the nation’s goals under president George Bush in which all children would be offered support in order to flourish academically. While ESSA has the same groundwork as NCLB Act, the government anticipates greater academic merit. Only time will tell if this will prove true, nevertheless ESSA will significantly change educational approaches in the upcoming years. During President Bush’s term, government became aware that American schooling needed major improvement. There was a need for a law which would improve the school system while using scores to evaluate students as well
as their teachers. "The fundamental principle of this bill is that every child can learn, we expect every child to learn, and you must show us whether or not every child is learning," (Secretary, 2002) President George W. Bush said on Jan. 8, 2002, signing ceremony of No Child Left Behind Act. However, this one size fits all approach revealed not be resourceful. "The goals of No Child Left Behind, the predecessor of this law, were the right ones: High standards. Accountability. Closing the achievement gap, but in practice, it often fell short. It didn't always consider the specific needs of each community. It led to too much testing during classroom time. 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." (U.S. Department of Education, n.d.) said President Obama. In response, President Obama passed a new law- Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

While trying to fix the flaws in the law and while aiming at closing gaps between performing and underperforming schools, President Barack Obama gave the power from the federal government back to state government. Whereas ESSA does have a similar roots as NCLB it is aimed at further closing the gaps which left poor and minority students in failing schools. This act aims at putting higher standards on schools, while carefully considering the needs of each community. Consequently, the new law has a more flexible approach when it comes to student testing. Each school has its own accountability and states are responsible for fixing their own under-performing schools. Critics argued that the NCLB Act focused too much on standardized testing, which encouraged teachers to teach for the sake of test performance rather than in-depth understanding.
On December 10, 2015 while signing ESSA President Barack Obama said: "With this bill, we reaffirm that fundamentally American ideal—that every child, regardless of race, income, background, the zip code where they live, deserves the chance to make of their lives what they will." (U.S.
Department of Education, n.d.) While President Obama made a promise of an improved law, ESSA and NCLB still proved to have many things in common. Key one is that NCLB Act indicated areas in need of enhancement and areas which were making progress. ESSA build on achievements set by preceding act and raised the criteria. Main modification is that The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 supported standards-based education. Under ESSA, the job of evaluating schools and deciding how to fix them will shift back to the states. NCLB required states to administer all grade level assessments which, when passed, would entitle them to federal school funding. Furthermore, NCLB gave the federal government a large role in education by allowing them to monitor testing, academic progress, report cards as well as the teacher qualification. As a way of improving, Every Student Succeeds Act would expand the responsibility of each state over schools, while reducing the federal test-based system of No Child Left Behind Act. This new law gives the power of education back to each state and allowes them to implement their own educational standards. President Obama and his administration had an objective of generating a
better law which would focus on fully preparing students for college as well as their occupations. In many ways this bill is a pledge for equal chance to all students. One of the most important provisions of ESSA is that it “Requires-for the first time- that all students in America be taught to high academic standards that will prepare them to succeed in college and careers.” (U.S. Department of Education, n.d.). The new act aims at fixing our schools by giving all students an equal opportunity regardless of their background. Respectively, the new law “Ensures that vital information is provided to educators, families, students, and communities through annual statewide assessments that measure students’ progress toward those high standards.” (U.S. Department of Education, n.d.)
No Child Left Behind Act had numerous flaws.
Schools were punished for under-performing and producing results which were unsatisfactory. In order to improve test scores instead of learning administrators focused on passing. Every Student Succeeds Act allows each state the power to be accountable for its system. While this is quite an improvement one must ask will all the states set high goals or just very low ones in order to label all kids proficient. Correspondingly, government failed to find a way to improve conditions in which education takes place. They failed to realize that in reality, many kids do not come to school ready to learn. They are too often distracted with things which take place at home. Poverty level in 2014 for children under 18 is 21.1 percent. (United States Census Bureau, 2014). Most of the underperforming schools still have high levels of students who do not have their basic needs met. It is absurd to think that we can change our school system just by changing the way how we test the child. It seems that the growing achievement gaps will yet again leave poor and minority students in failing school and a devised system of testing will not be able to fix
it.
While our government sets forth policies they always focus on results instead of focusing on developmental concepts. For example, Mazlow concluded that the child needs to have their psychological needs met first. This is never reflected in our policies. Neither are safety, social or esteem needs. We expect learning to take place often without considering any basic needs which child might or might not have. This is especially true for children with special needs and children who are growing up in underprivileged areas. Learning and testing cannot take place unless a child has their life necessities met. Policies set by our government affect us in many ways. They affect educators who often have to follow policies set in order to achieve results. They affect students with needs who never get accounted for but are often forgotten when new laws are written. But most of all, ESSA will affect the way in which our children learn. Now that each state has the power to set their own achievements it will be interesting to see if they will end up pushing for success. While one size fits all policy is far from what we need throughout United States, leaving the entire education system in hands of state government without any further monitoring might prove to be disastrous. In my opinion, while Every Student Succeeds Act is an improvement over No Child Left Behind Act it will still not be an answer to educational system in United States. While I agree that each state should have their own power, I do think that a federal government should set at least some standards for all. Furthermore, students with special needs as well as ESL students will once again not get the attention they need. The ways in which ESSA will change our education approaches will depend on states in which we teach and goals which our state sets for us.