Every Student Succeeds Act

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

ESSA replaced NCLB.
Both acts, No Child Left Behind Act and Every Student Succeeds Act, were passed by Congress and presented to the sitting Presidents of the United States for signature—NCLB signed into law by George W. Bush in 2002, and ESSA signed into law by Barack Obama in 2015.

Still shell-shocked from years of the calamitous No Child Left Behind (NCLB) overreach, the perceived passiveness of ESSA (note the traditional wordsmithing, below) was a welcome reprieve.

However, ESSA’s substantive silence, together with NCLB’s disruption and overreach, brought a combined two-decade loss (and counting) for stellar K–12 student performance. Other than providing NAEP assessments of K–12 student performance across the states, the federal government and its U.S. Department of Education offered traditional bureaucracy.

Alyson Klein of Education Week (March 2016): “ESSA was signed into law on December 10, 2015. Replacing NCLB, it rolls back much of the federal government’s big footprint in education policy, on everything from testing and teacher quality to low-performing schools. And it gives new leeway to states in calling the shots.” 

ESSA’s aims, published by the U.S. Department of Education:
  • Increasing transparency: States are required to provide information to parents and the public about student performance, school funding, and school rankings.
  • Setting high academic standards: All students are expected to be taught to high academic standards to prepare them for college and careers.
  • Supporting local innovation: Local educators and leaders are encouraged to develop evidence-based interventions.
  • Expanding access to preschool: ESSA supports programs that increase access to high-quality preschool.
  • Holding schools accountable: Schools that are underperforming are expected to take action to improve.
  • Providing flexibility for funding: States can use funds for career and technical education, transportation to higher performing schools, and other purposes.
  • Defining a well-rounded education: The definition of a well-rounded education includes the arts and music, and Title I funds can be used for arts education.
For the states, No Child Left Behind Act and the continuing quasi-presence of Every Student Succeeds Act have meant:
  • No federal solutions—primarily administrative processes and prose
  • Meanwhile, amid the ongoing reality that roughly half of U.S. students continue to score below minimum proficiency in core subjects such as reading and math on NAEP assessments, the states continue to try—as they always have—to do the best they can.