AN EARLY START

EDUCATION NEWS
PRESIDENT OBAMA SIGNS NEW EDUCATION POLICY INTO LAW
In a rare show of bipartisanship, Congress
overwhelmingly passed — and President
Barack Obama signed — the Every Student
Succeeds Act (ESSA), putting an end to the
long-discredited No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB).
Leading up to ESSA’s passage, educators
mobilized in New Jersey and across the
nation, using face-to-face meetings with
lawmakers, phone calls, petitions, emails
and social media to urge Congress to move
away from the failed NCLB regime so that
all students get a well-rounded education.
Educators nationwide made nearly a half
million individual contacts to members of
Congress. Through this effort, the nation is
now turning the page from a failed education
law to one that allows states to create a
new approach.
“I commend President Obama and members
of Congress for putting students first,”
said NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer.
“This new law puts us on the path to begin
to move away from high-stakes testing and
instead help our students develop a lifelong
love of learning.”
Unlike the dictates of NCLB, which created
a rigid test-and-punish system with
little flexibility, ESSA represents a different
approach. The law steps away from federal
mandates by putting decisions on school
performance and accountability into the
hands of states. Much of the law’s success,
however, depends on what New Jersey
chooses to do.
ESSA REDUCES FEDERAL GOVERN-
MENT ROLE IN ACCOUNTABILITY
Under the new law, New Jersey must create
an accountability system not dictated
by U.S. Education Department policy. Unlike
NCLB, which required testing as the
primary measure, ESSA allows a system
of multiple measures as part of a comprehensive
indication of school and student
achievement. The state must determine
which measures to use and what weight to
provide to each inside of broad parameters.
Broadly, the law begins to close the opportunity
gaps for students by providing a
new system that includes an “opportunity
dashboard’ with indicators of school success
and resources for students. The dashboard
goes beyond student achievement on
standardized tests, and looks at equitable
student access to early education, fine arts
programs, libraries, certified teachers, class
sizes that enable individual attention and
other resources. For more about the Opportunity
Dashboard, visit http://bit.ly/
oppdashboard.
ESSA allows states to set a cap on the time
students spend on standardized testing,
and decouples such testing from highstakes
decisions.
ESSA allows states to set a cap
on the time students spend
on standardized testing, and
decouples such testing from
high-stakes decisions.
THE NUMBERS IN THEIR VERY FIRST YEAR
100%
THE PERCENTAGE OF NEWLY HIRED NEW JERSEY TEACHERS, BY YEAR, WHO HAD NOT HELD A PREVIOUS TEACHING POSITION
80%
60%
40%
20%
Other key highlights of the law:
• Eliminates Adequate Yearly Progress
(AYP), the impossible one-size-fits-all goal
driving NCLB’s failed accountability system.
• Incorporates the Support Making Assessments
Reliable and Timely (SMART)
Act to provide funding for states to audit
and streamline assessments, and eliminate
those that are unnecessary or duplicative.
• Creates a state pilot program — in seven
states initially — for local assessments driven
by teaching and learning, not accountability
alone, that could be used in place of
the state’s standardized tests.
• Requires school districts to inform parents
and guardians of opt-out policies, and
allows them to have their children opt out
of statewide standardized tests where state
and local policies permit.
• Allows states to set a cap limiting the
amount of time students spend taking annual
standardized tests.
• Continues annual statewide standardized
tests in reading and math in grades 3-8
and once in high schools, but districts could
seek approval to use the SAT, ACT, another
nationally recognized assessment or Advanced
Placement assessments to fulfill the
high school requirement.
• Decreases the importance of highstakes
testing through the use of multiple
measures in state-designed accountability
plans.
• Prohibits the U.S. Secretary of Education
from mandating accountability parameters
and criteria, the weight given to
different elements of accountability plans,
how teachers are evaluated, and what constitutes
teacher effectiveness.
• ESSA also expands the reach of collective
bargaining and requires consultation
with organizations representing educators,
ensuring that teachers and their local
unions have a say in decision-making.
“While not perfect, this law finally recognizes
that when it comes to knowing
what our kids need to succeed, our nation’s
educators are the best possible resource,”
Steinhauer said. “Moreover, ESSA provides
concrete strategies to close the opportunity
gaps so that educators can maximize the
potential in every child—regardless of zip
code.”
Visit nea.org/hotresourcesesea to learn
more about the new law.
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