Will New Federal Education Policy Make a Difference?
President Barack Obama greets Kenmore Middle School eighth-grader Sofia Rios and the other stage participants prior to a bill signing ceremony for S. 1177, Every Student Succeeds Act, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building South Court Auditorium, Dec. 10, 2015. Standing with Rios from left, Education Secretary Arne Duncan; Lily Eskelsen García, President, National Education Association; Todd Rokita, R-Ind.; Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore.; and House Education Committee Chairman John Kline, R-Minn. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Much Ado About an Enigma: No One Really Knows What Impact the ESSA Will Have on Public Schools
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 itNo 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 schools. Even under the most positive reading, there are limits to this freedom.
The document continues to mandate testing children each year in grades 3-8 and once in high school. It also mandates academic standards and accountability systems. However, what these look like is apparently open to the states.
For instance:
The Secretary [of Education] shall not have the authority to mandate, direct, control, coerce, or Will New Federal Education Policy Make a Difference? - LA Progressive:
