(Edweek) By John B. King Jr. —
The passage just over a year ago of the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, provides us an opportunity to begin our work together.
The top-down, one-size-fits-all approach of the No Child Left Behind law was a blunt tool, ill-suited to a task that called for nuance. ESSA, on the other hand, empowers local leaders to develop strategies that address their unique needs. But that doesn’t mean every district should go it alone without guardrails for protecting students’ civil rights, guidelines for implementing the law, or the good ideas forged and shown to work by others.
ESSA also calls for states to continue making college-and-career readiness their goal. We must be united in fighting efforts to water down those expectations and undercut progress when the work gets hard. Read the article
