EDUCATION - The Every Student Succeeds Act

"New education law shifts federal influence over public schools" PBS NewsHour 12/10/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  After years of debate, President Obama and Congress have finally agreed on a new education law.  The Every Student Succeeds Act, the successor of No Child Left Behind, still requires annual testing of some students, but it does not give the federal government the power to impose penalties on underperforming schools.  Alyson Klein of Education Week joins Judy Woodruff for a closer look.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  After years of criticism and debate over the federal law known as No Child Left Behind, the president and Congress have finally agreed on a new education law, one that aims to shift some of the federal government’s influence over 100,000 public schools.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  A Christmas miracle, a bipartisan bill signing right here.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

JUDY WOODRUFF:  President Obama praised the new bill called the Every Student Succeeds Act as he prepared to sign it into law at the White House.

It still requires annual testing of students between third and eighth grade, as well as once during high school.  But, unlike the prior law signed by President George W. Bush in 2002, it doesn’t give the federal government power to impose penalties on underperforming schools.

President Obama, who had waived those penalties, but had backed many features of the law for years, acknowledged the shortcomings of No Child Left Behind.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  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.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  The new law passed with unusually large bipartisan margins in the Senate and the House, a point made yesterday by one of its sponsors, Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R), Tennessee:  Not many things this important pass the U.S. Senate 85-12.

(LAUGHTER)

SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER:  And we’re — this is a big Christmas present from the Senate and the House, and it’s going down to the President, and I hope he wraps a big red ribbon around it and sends it out to 100 million students and 3.4 million teachers in 100,000 pubic schools.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  States and school districts will now have more responsibility for judging how schools are doing and how to utilize testing.  Teacher evaluations, long a subject of intense debate, will not necessarily be tied to tests.