Haley Buss

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson passed The Elementary and Secondary Education

Act (ESEA) to improve the quality of education for lower income students. Between 1965 and

2015 the ESEA had changes made eight times, including in 2002 when it was renamed the No

Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). As time continued and education grew, the NCLB act became

stressful and overwhelming for students, teachers, administration, and schools all over the nation.

Waivers were being administered to help states relieve some of the stress, but a large change was

still needed. Finally in 2015, President Barack Obama signed The Every Student Succeeds Act

(ESSA) which reduced the role of federal government in state education policies. Full

implementation of this law has recently begun in the fall of 2017.

Under ESSA, the individual states are in charge of their own funding and decide where

the funding is needed most, rather than the federal government making these decisions. I believe

this act is helping schools everywhere take back control of helping their students succeed. The

federal government is one board of members attempting to oversee and mandate every school in

every state. Now that the power has shifted from the federal government to individual states, the

focus can be directed to state specific problems.

In a blog post from the International Literacy Association, Terra Wallin, ​program and

management analyst for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S.

Department of Education, states, “some of the many things ESSA accomplishes include reducing

the burden of testing, making preschool more accessible, and allowing for local innovation”

(Hall, 2016). Teachers are able to breathe easier now that the pressure of test scores do not

determine their worth or salary. Teachers are able to teach great content to their students instead
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of “teach to the test.” The act still requires states to test students in grades 3-8 to provide data,

however, the states are able to create their own accountability system.

The new flexibility of this act opens a wondrous amount of opportunities for states. States

are able to use their funding as they see fit and take greater steps towards closing the

achievement gap. I believe The Every Student Succeeds Acts is a monumental improvement for

education in supporting students to receive a high-quality education. Although the full

implementation of this act is fairly new, I believe positive results are soon to come.
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References

Hall, April. (2016, July 11). Stakeholders Discuss ESSA Implementation. Retrieved from

https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-daily/2016/07/11/stakeholders-discuss-e

ssa-implementation

International Literacy Association (2016). Advocacy Toolkit, Every Student Succeeds Act.

Retrieved from

https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/ila-essa-toolkit.p

df?sfvrsn=b1fea08e_4

Mangan, Dan. (2016, June 16). Unpacking ESSA: Panel to Discuss Critical Implementation

Challenges. Retrieved from

https://www.literacyworldwide.org/blog/literacy-daily/2016/06/16/unpacking-essa-panel-

to-discuss-critical-implementation-challenges