ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) dates back to 1965 with a president (Johnson) that believed the first national goal should be a full educational opportunity for all students. ESEA offered grants to districts of low-income students and grants for libraries and textbooks. The Act has been updated several times and resulted in NCLB. Today, the consensus in Washington is that NCLB is broken.
This act needs reformed for several reasons:
• There are a few thousand failing schools
• Low-income students are trapped in under-performing schools
• There are low expectations
• The achievement gap is widening between rich and poor
• A gap now exists within the middle class
• It provides for clerical workers and aids, not teachers and professional development
Secretary Duncan is calling for replacing NCLB with a revised ESEA. It will build on the lessons learned in the last decade. The Obama Administration’s plan is to ensure that all young people are prepared for success in college and careers. It calls for high standards for academic performance and demands a rigorous level of accountability. However, the ESEA Flexibility Waiver did not extend into the 2014-2015 school year.
The revised ESEA should present opportunities to improve U.S. School systems and provide better information to parents about their children’s progress and the success of their school. Instead it proposes to reduce parent access to information and delegates the decision about the quality of the school to states.
The ESEA bill originally called for:
• Maintaining annual testing in reading and math for grades 3-8 and once in high school
• States must disaggregate student data by race/ethnicity, student with disabilities, and English-language learners
• No AYP
• Target school improvement interventions on five percent of the low-performing schools
• Require states to create common core standards that are college and career-ready
• Consolidate more than 80 programs to 40 categories of funding
The Bill, as presented by Senator Alexander, lowers the bar in permitting states to establish standards according to colleges near their state’s borders and not to challenging standards. It prevents parents from making informed decisions on a child’s future. States would have the option of deciding how to measure student progress and eliminate the same assessments for all students. The bill eliminates accountability for low-performing schools. They could design and implement almost any system they want with no federal checks allowing students with no hope for interventions or improvement. Federal funding for before and after school programs will be eliminated. Schools will be left to fund programs themselves including Title I funding. They will be required to maintain the same spending levels from year to year. States will have free rein to cut education budgets resulting in large class sizes and limited resources.
Today’s education system needs stability for the next several years. Presently, with this do-nothing congress, our school systems are in a state of quandary. So, what do we need to boost our education system?
Schools in poor districts need greater funding to help the students improve their scores. In areas of low-income, taxes fall short in supplementing the school budget. Government needs to find a way to keep our highest achievers at the top and not short change the low-income schools – causing the achievement gap to grow. Throwing money into programs does not make the school better. Better teachers and administrators make the school better. Teacher and administrative training and professional development are needed.
Our government needs to recognize that early education is a trigger for achievement. Parents in low-income areas need training in how to educate and build a firm foundation for learning so when young children begin kindergarten they have a basis for building new information. Congress needs to take responsibility and take steps to make our education system excellent through goals that focus on the needs of all school districts across the United States.
