Much Ado About an Enigma – No One Really Knows What Impact the ESSA Will Have on Public Schools
President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) this week.
The new legislation reauthorizes federal law governing K-12 public education.
In 1965 we called it the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Until today we called it No Child Left Behind (NCLB). And now after a much-hyped signing ceremony, the most definitive thing we can say about it is this: federal education policy has a new name.
Seriously. That’s about it.
Does it reduce the federal role in public schools? Maybe.
Does it destroy Common Core State Standards? Possibly.
Is it an improvement on previous policies? Potentially.
Will it enable an expansion of wretched charter schools and unqualified Teach for America recruits? Likely.
The problem is this – it’s an over 1,000 page document that’s been open to public review for only two weeks. Though it was publicly debated and passed in the House and Senate, it was finalized behind closed doors and altered according to secure hurried Congressional votes. As such, the final version is full of legal jargon, hidden compromise, new definitions and verbiage that is open to multiple meanings.
How one reader interprets the law may be exactly the opposite of how another construes it.
Take the much-touted contention that the ESSA reduces the federal role in public Much Ado About an Enigma – No One Really Knows What Impact the ESSA Will Have on Public Schools | gadflyonthewallblog:
