For the past eight years, federal lawmakers have been debating No Child Left Behind — a measure that led to a reliance on standardized testing as a way to ensure that students were getting a good education. That unpopular law has been replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA for short.
President Barack Obama tagged it a “Christmas Miracle,” due to its overwhelming bipartisan support.
ESSA shifts control away from the federal government and back to the states, and provides other means to measure schools besides just standardized tests. Illinois’ U.S. Senator Dick Durbin says it’s the most important step lawmakers can take.
"It is tied to the future prosperity of our country, more than any bill that we'll face in this Congress. It will decide whether our kids get the education they deserve from preschool all the way through college and beyond. If we don't get this right, the rest of what we do doesn't matter much.”
The Act requires intervention for schools that fail to meet state standards, but critics of the new law worry that states will just lower the bar to make schools seem successful.
"We're really saying to the creative genius of teachers and administrators, working with parents and students: Now show us a better way than No Child Left Behind. It's kind of a challenge and I think they're up to it,” Durbin says.
Teacher unions and school administrators have also been on board with the changes.
