President signs ESSA into law

President Obama says good-bye to No Child Left Behind

Today President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) tossing out the one-size-fits-all mandates of No Child Left Behind. See more at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/12/10/white-house-report-every-student-succeeds-act

Superintendent Dr. Bill Jordan comments on this historic law.  

Superintendent Dr. Bill Jordan comments on this historic law:
“Yesterday, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act, a reauthorization of the Elementary Secondary Education Act. The bill is a complete overhaul of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. This is an important day in the history of K-12 public education.

Senator Patty Murray provided critical leadership in the development of and her shepherding through the process, a landmark piece of education legislation. School districts and states have been under the burden of draconian Federal mandates for many years and Senator Murray's leadership has resulted in an opportunity to better meet the needs of our kids and not be under the heavy hand of the Federal Department of Education.

Supplemental Educational Services:
The new law still requires us to reserve 7% of our Title 1 funds; however, we will no longer be required to send August "failure" letters to parents. No Child Left Behind required school districts to reserve 20% of allocated Title 1 funds for use only with third party vendors for free tutoring programs known as Supplemental Educational Services. The reservation of 20% of the funding restricted the types and quality of programs we were able to provide at the individual school district level.

Highly Qualified Teachers:
The rules regarding "Highly Qualified Teachers" have been relaxed. This is great news for middle schools, for special education programs and for our regions small high schools. Each state must still have a high standards test to report the results of to the Department of Education. However, Washington has had higher than normal requirements for students since the implementation of the WASL in the 1990s.

Annual Federal requirements for testing reading and Math in grades 3-8 remain and the requirement that science be tested three times between grades 3 and 12. The flexibility in testing comes from individual states determining any further testing the State Legislature and the State Board of Education may require beyond what the Federal government requires. School districts will have the ability to apply to use the ACT, SAT or AP tests to meet these requirements at the high school level.

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP):
We are pleased to see the unrealistic Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) diagnostic tool being removed since it did not accurately reflect or communicate the educational quality and opportunities in our schools. Schools and districts not meeting these flawed progress targets were inaccurately labeled as failing. Walla Walla Public Schools, as well as districts across the state and nation, have research-based programs in place to track progress and academic achievement as part of a comprehensive accountability system.

Thank you to the many of you who have called, emailed or written to Congress in support of this historic reauthorization.”