The Every Child Achieves Act of 2015—Concerns
Bloggers are describing their interpretation of The Every Child Achieves Act of 2015. I wanted to add my concerns. Here is the summary of the Act. Here is the long version.
First, I am not a fan of what states and even the local school districts have done to public schools. So I don’t get too excited about eliminating the federal part of the equation. Arne Duncan and Co. are not the only drivers of draconian school reform.
Governors signed off on Common Core State Standards, and most states have backed terrible high-stakes testing regimens. Many states adore charter schools. Children in the early grades are pushed harder than ever before to achieve. And students with disabilities are losing services like nobody’s business. You can argue they are forced to behave this way, but I don’t buy it.
So what does it really matter if you kick Arne out of the house when the whole family is dysfunctional?
Also, the federal government, if it worked right, should be there to fill in gaps and assist states and local education associations. The three, in my opinion, should work together for the betterment of our public schools. Unfortunately, this is but a dream at this point. The Act might look like something for everyone, but I don’t see where it is all that different from NCLB.
I also am not entirely convinced by this Act that the federal government is taking a back seat to education.
I will write about what concerns me the most.
- High-Stakes Testing
- Common Core State Standards
- Literacy
- Special Education
- English Language Learners
- Schools of Education
- Privacy Rights
- Charter Schools
High-Stakes Testing
States get to develop accountability systems, but it seems clear that they will still do a lot of testing. States would have the option of using one big summative test or lots of smaller test essentially combined to reflect a single summative assessment. Will states continue to throw tests at kindergarten and the early grades? And will they still tie teachers to the test scores? They can if they want.
They still talk a lot about data. And consider that states must include graduation rates, which likely means they will continue to make students take the test to prove they are The Every Child Achieves Act of 2015—Concerns: