Making Sure "Every Student Succeeds"

On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) which has come to be known as the "Every Student Succeeds Act".  What is this and where did it come from?  And, more importantly, what does that mean for our schools?

A little history lesson, first, to see how this all began.

• In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.  This act included Title 1 grant money to help cover the cost of teaching disadvantaged students. 
•  In 1968, new programs were added to this bill to include even more children with the focus on equity.  Now states needed to be held accountable for how this money was spent.
• President Carter, in 1978, reauthorized the law to include Title I as a "school-wide" program to serve students beyond those from disadvantaged families. He also established the US Department of Education.
• President Reagan consolidated many education programs under "Chapter I". 
• In 1988, School Districts began to be held accountable to make sure these federal programs were effective- test score data would be the benchmark for this.
• President George H.W. Bush held a summit to set in place a federal and state partnership to create standards and accountability.
• President Bill Clinton signed the renewal of the ESEA that called for states to determine schools not meeting "annual yearly progress" using the state-wide testing.
• In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the "No Child Left Behind Act".  This expansion of ESEA required teachers to be highly qualified, led to testing of all students grades 3-8 and once in high school, and called for all students to score "proficient" on the state tests, no matter their circumstance.
• In 2011, waivers were offered to states (once certain guidelines were met) to loosen many of the restrictions contained in the No Child Left Behind Act.
• After years of debates and stalling by Congress, the "Every Child Succeeds Act" was agreed to in a bipartisan effort.

What does all of this mean for us- for Raymond students? The purpose of this new act is to prepare our students to be "college and career ready".  How does this work?  First, we have standards to help with this and our teachers use these standards to teach lessons using real-world problems.  The standards will be assessed through state-wide testing that will generate useful data for schools to use.  This is the first time that standards are for all students- beyond state borders- insuring a high quality, rigorous learning experience no matter where a student lives.

This new act also continues to protect our sub-groups of students such as our special needs and disadvantaged students- the most vulnerable of our children.  And there will continue to be accountability to ensure that low performing schools make progress.

How do we make sure our students are "college and career ready"? Every year, in Raymond, our teachers and administrators use data to identify students who may need extra help for a variety of reasons and to identify gaps in our students' knowledge.  Many hours are spent analyzing all the data we have on every student and we don't just use one assessment, we use several measures of data to make sure our students are progressing.  Some of these include:  Dibbles, NWEA, common assessments, individual assessments, and the Smarter Balanced tests.  We use Title 1 money to hire tutors and a reading specialist.  In addition, our teachers are involved in professional development opportunities to develop performance assessments and create relevant, rigorous, problem-solving opportunities.  (As a matter of fact, members of our high school staff have been invited to be a "Showcase School" at a February NASSP Conference to highlight the hard work they have done in this area.)

None of the standards require a teacher to teach a certain way- that is why teaching is truly an art.  I've written before on how no two teachers teach the same way, interact with students the same way, or make connections in the same way. We want all of our kids to be successful and to be prepared for the future- so these standards are merely a "base" which we use to support the wonderful variety of learning experiences our students have everyday in our schools.  All of these things have kept our schools and our students progressing and as we continue to find many avenues to ensure that Every "Raymond" Student Succeeds.