Here Comes “ Every Student Suceeds!"

We have been through “ No Child Left Behind, “ and “ Race to the Top.” Now it is time for something new?- Every Student Succeeds. If enacted by Congress and signed by President Obama, the new legislation would enable local school districts to have more control over the use of standardized testing to monitor students’ performance. Nationwide, students would s till be tested in grades three through eight and one additional time in high school. The new law would enable the individual states to craft policies on how to hold school districts accountable for low-performing schools. States would able be given the opportunity to unlink teacher evaluations to test performances of their students.

This is both good and bad news. The good news is the states will have more flexibility and decision making authority. The bad news is that the federal government is still involved in public education- something that it was not granted the right to do under the US Constitution. Even though “ Every Student Succeeds” is a bipartisan effort, there still is no clear path to advance progress in American Public education.

C.2015 J. Margolis