Tester, Juneau, education officials: ESSA can't be 'No Child Left Behind 2.0'
Jon Tester
Superintendents and teachers from across western Montana are cautiously optimistic about the Every Student Succeeds Act, a new law that tosses out the controversial No Child Left Behind and is supposed to return more control to states and local school districts.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., hosted a roundtable discussion Tuesday afternoon at Missoula County Public Schools' business building. Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau and senior adviser to the U.S. Education Secretary Ruthanne Buck joined him, as did superintendents from Montana school districts.
The goal, Buck said, is to hear comments and concerns of educators nationwide as the U.S. Department of Education continues to write regulations and guidance surrounding Every Student Succeed's implementation.
ESSA went into effect in December, replacing No Child Left Behind, which was enacted in 2002.
Tester and Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke voted for ESSA. Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines voted no, saying the law "fails to provide states with needed flexibility and control over federal education funds to best address the needs of local students."
In March, Juneau appointed two work groups of 33 teachers, parents and school board members to help develop the state's plan. Montana will move from No Child Left Behind to ESSA next school year.
"Local control is critical," Tester said.
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That all sounds nice, superintendents said, but will it be reality?
The argument against No Child Left Behind was that the federal government had too much control over education, holding funding hostage if states didn't meet certain benchmarks tied to annual standardized testing. ESSA is reported to relax that control, and let states and local districts decide accountability for themselves.
"Is there really going to be local control or is that just words on a page?" said Great Falls Public Schools superintendent Tammy Lacey.
Lacey said she has "more questions than answers" about ESSA and agreed with Juneau that she doesn't want ESSA to turn into "No Child Left Behind 2.0."
"For the record, neither do we," Buck said.
"Will we learn that accountability drives what's taught in our classrooms?" Lacey said. "We know and saw that happen when we tested math and reading, what happened in schools, where the focus went."
She's referring to a common criticism that NCLB encouraged "teaching to the test," specifically to the requirement for annual Tester, Juneau, education officials: ESSA can't be 'No Child Left Behind 2.0' | Local | missoulian.com: