Complete Coverage

Inside the Every Student Succeeds Act

The year-end passage and signing of the Every Student Succeeds Act represents more than just a rare bipartisan agreement on the part of the nation’s chronically polarized policymakers. For the first time in more than a decade—and a half-century after enactment of the country’s main K-12 law—Congress has redefined the federal role in elementary and secondary education. And it’s done so in a way that aims to enhance the authority of states and school districts that had long chafed at the strictures of ESSA’s predecessor, the No Child Left Behind Act.

Now comes the really hard part: implementation. This special report on ESSA looks at what the law will mean for virtually every aspect of public schooling when it takes full effect in the 2017-18 academic year. Topics include accountability and testing, teacher quality, research, regulation, funding, early-childhood education, and thorny issues involving student groups that often lag behind their peers.

OVERVIEW

Congress Weighs Federal Footprint as ESSA Rolls Out

Oversight hearings on Capitol Hill highlight some divisions between lawmakers on the best way to implement the new education law.

March 9, 2016 – Education Week

ESSA Spotlights Strategy to Reach Diverse Learners

An instructional framework called universal design for learning, or UDL, which supports multiple ways to teach lessons, has found a niche in the Every Student Succeeds Act.

February 24, 2016 – Education Week

Military Career Testing Could Get ESSA Boost

As the state testing landscape shifts with the Every Student Succeeds Act, the military could see greater access for its optional aptitude test and career-exploration program.

February 24, 2016 – Education Week

Under ESSA, States, Districts to Share More Power

The Every Student Succeeds Act, the latest version of the nation’s main K-12 law, aims to scale back the hands-on federal role in elementary and secondary education.

• The Every Student Succeeds Act: Explained

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

IMPLEMENTATION

ESSA Regulatory Machinery Starting to Crank Up

With the ink barely dry on the Every Student Succeeds Act, the U.S. Department of Education begins the tricky process of setting the course for implementation.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

Funding Flexibility Enhanced Under New K-12 Law

ESSA, the newly reauthorized version of the ESEA, makes changes in how schools can use money set aside for economically disadvantaged students.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

Teaching

ESSA Loosens Reins on Teacher Evaluations, Qualifications

The Every Student Succeeds Act could embolden some states to revise or abandon their current methods for rating teachers.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

Accountability

ESSA Law Broadens Definition of School Success

The Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to measure at least one nonacademic factor, such as student engagement, when tracking schools' performance.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

Testing

ESSA's Flexibility on Assessment Elicits Qualms From Testing Experts

The Every Student Succeeds Act allows states and districts to cobble scores from interim assessments into a single, summative score, but some experts worry that will make the results less valid.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

Will States Swap Standards-Based Tests for SAT, ACT?

An ESSA provision that lets states use college-entrance exams to measure student achievement could spur a profound shift in high school testing.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

Research

NCLB Rewrite Sets New Path on School Research

The Every Student Succeeds Act takes a more flexible, more nuanced approach to assessing the research evidence for educational programs and policies.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

Low-Performing Schools

States, Districts to Call Shots on Turnarounds Under ESSA

The new federal K-12 law still requires states to identify their worst-performing schools, but states and districts have great leeway in how to turn them around.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

Classroom and Curriculum

ESSA Reins In, Reshapes Federal Role in Literacy

The new program is smaller and less prescriptive than Reading First, and it can be applied to students of all ages.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

School Systems Get More Say on STEM Education

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, states and districts get more leeway—and more options—on funding STEM programs.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

Arts Learning Keeps Toehold in ESSA

Unlike earlier proposals in Congress, the new law includes language that cements states' obligation to support arts education.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

Special Populations

Law Adds to Pre-K's Stature as Federal-State Priority

The Every Student Succeeds Act locks into law a $250 million grant program to support states as they develop preschool programs and directs money to state early-childhood literacy efforts.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

ELL Advocates Hopeful and Wary of New Federal K-12 Law

The new law will bring a number of changes to ELL policy that has some advocates and educators worried about the 5 million and growing population of English-learners.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

Special Education Advocates Gear Up for ESSA Implementation

Advocates for students with disabilities say they'll want to be at the table as states hammer out plans to comply with the new federal education law.

January 6, 2016 – Education Week

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