Fixing NCLB and Creating Opportunities for Innovation

Last week, the education policy landscape shifted for states as President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into law, replacing No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Here is a quick recap of our major takeaways from the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act:

 1. Fixing NCLB. The new law governing federal education funding “fixes” many of the problematic aspects of NCLB, including the mandate for 100% student proficiency by 2014 and the cascade of consequences that prompted states to seek relief in the form of Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) flexibility waivers.

2. Greater local authority. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) decreases the role of the federal government in accountability, emphasizes greater public transparency and evidence-based interventions, and creates more flexibility for state and local-level decision making.

For example, while ESSA maintains that states must identify the lowest five percent of schools for support and improvement, it allows districts to take the lead in developing evidence-based interventions. This is a shift from the approach under NCLB and the ESEA flexibility waivers, which required schools identified for improvement to implement specific intervention models in order to receive federal funding.

3. Opportunity. ESSA presents several opportunities for states and districts to innovate and improve outcomes for all students.

 For example, the new bill includes provisions for school district funding flexibility pilots, which would allow participating school districts to consolidate and distribute funding to schools using a single per-pupil formula that more heavily weights low-income students, English learners, and other disadvantaged students. This could be an opportunity for Delaware. As noted in Student Success 2025, Delaware is one of the few states where education funding follows “units,” or staff positions, rather than reflecting the needs of individual students.

Other opportunities include pre-school development grants, funding for education innovation and research grants, innovative assessment pilots, etc.

4. Responsibility. ESSA places a greater burden of responsibility on states and local authorities to ensure that all students succeed, particularly high-need student populations (i.e. low-income, English learners, minority, special education, etc.). ESSA removes the federal consequences designed to catalyze action in states and districts lacking the will, capital, or capacity to take actions.

5. Timeline. The education policy landscape is still shifting and there is still more to come in terms of regulations, guidance, and implementation that could shape the impact of ESSA for states and district over the coming years. While ESSA is expected to be enacted this calendar year, there will be a period of transition. Existing ESEA Flexibility Waivers become void on August 1, 2016 and beginning in 2017-18, states will need to implement the new accountability system called for under ESSA.

6. Additional Resources. Here are some additional resources to dig to help you make sense of the 1,061-page ESSA bill:

• Education Week’s brief outline of the Every Student Succeeds Act
• Alliance for Excellent Education’s series of bite-sized materials (one-pagers, fact sheets, and videos) that provide concise but comprehensive analysis of several key areas of ESSA, including: Accountability, Assessment, High Schools, Teacher and Leaders.
• Education Trust’s preliminary overview of key provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act.