The Pros And Cons Of Every Student Succeeds Act

On December 10, 2015, Every Student Succeeds Act was enacted after being signed by President Obama. The previous education policy, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), proved to be unworthy of providing the assurance that every child received the education he or she needed. In addition to this, many conservatives believed that the federal government had too much control over the curriculum and educational standards, impinging states’ rights. This rewritten act replacing the NCLB returns the power from federal control to the state and local levels. Doing so has increased the responsibility of improving or fixing underachieving schools under the state governments. Nonetheless, some regulations still stand, such as mandatory standardized testing in reading and math, although there is now flexibility pertaining to when or how the state administers the tests. Finally, the new law also does not require every school to …show more content…
As a result, some schools had to take drastic measures, such as firing the principal and the majority of the school staff, closing down the school, or lengthening the school year or day. An article, “Every Student Act fails too many students,” by the Los Angeles Times, mentions that the Every Student Succeeds Act has disadvantages as well. Although it has given state governments more power over their educational policies, it has also made it more difficult to pinpoint the schools that need improvements. The article further states that if the country wants to improve schools, the states need to get personally involved and provide an organized improvement plan (The Times Editorial Board, 2). All of the sources listed above, helped to form my opinion that the Every Student Succeeds Act needs to improve, or be replaced with a new policy entirely, so that every student is eligible for high-quality