Brian Cohen
  • Making the Grade Blog
  • About Me
  • Tutoring
  • Press
  • Resources to Share

Every Student Succeeds or just a watered-down version of NCLB?

12/13/2015

0 Comments

 
As many of you probably know, last week President Obama signed a new bill into law with the largest ramifications for education since No Child Left Behind. Entitled the "Every Student Succeeds Act", it is currently being hailed as a savior of sorts from the ill-conceived notions of testing sponsored by NCLB under President George W. Bush. With bipartisan support (like NCLB also had), the law sailed through the House of Representatives and the Senate, despite being a 1000-page behemoth that was only truly released a few days before the vote. 

What is most fascinating to me is that the law changes a lot while at the same time changing very little. The main shift that everyone is focusing on is that the federal government no longer mandates teacher evaluation to be tied to standardized test scores. Instead, the states and local governments are left to battle that fight on their own. In New York State Governor Cuomo simultaneously announced a moratorium on test-based teacher evaluations for four years. This seems at odds with his previous positions on incorporating testing so highly into teacher evaluation.

There are some strange things included in this bill, however, that are just coming to light (as people can finally sit down to read it). 

1) States are free to choose their own test-based accountability policies but they must be approved by the secretary of education in order to receive Title 1 funding (Source).

2) The ESSA contains a ban on abortion-funding for school-based clinics. While this is a very low number of clinics, it is interesting that it is included (Source).

3) Possibly the biggest issue is surrounding teacher preparation programs and what constitutes a "high-quality teacher," what credits they should be earning, etc (Source).

While it is a step in the right direction, in my opinion, to reduce the role of the federal government from mandating testing, it is not true that testing will be gone. States are still mandated to test students in grade 3-8 and once in high school for a variety of subjects. We'll see how this plays out.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I am a math teacher in the New York Department of Education. I infuse technology and real-world problems into my curriculum in order to prepare my students for the future. I would love for people across the country to recognize we teachers can't do it alone. If you don't believe me, come visit my classroom!

    Picture

    Contact Me

    Picture

    Email Updates

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Archives

    March 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    September 2020
    August 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.