Assessing the ESSA

A Quick Look at the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015

Synthesis

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015 was the successor to the No Child Left Behind Act and is focused on making sure students were college and career ready through statewide assessments. ESSA was signed into law by President Obama in 2015 to continue to the trend of higher graduation rates from high school and lower overall dropout rates that stemmed from the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002 (Anonymous 1, 2020). However, over time, there was a need to revamp the law that provided assistance to those areas that needed it regardless of social circumstances. The ideas was to create a more streamlined and flexible approach to assessment and future readiness (Anonymous 1, 2020).

The initial plan for ESSA was to create high quality assessments that would provide meaningful data to various social institution such as the state and school districts, as well as to parents and stakeholders (Anonymous 2, 2020). The ESSA act put the focus on specific disciplines which include Math, Science, and Reading, and while states may create their own assessments, they must provide those methods to the public along with the results. Along with the results, the state must also provide how much they spend per student, referred to as the Per Pupil Expenditure (Anonymous 2, 2020). This allows for transparency and public disclosure that was not part of the NCLB Act.

The ESSA is designed to allow states and school districts flexibility in their assessment methods, but also hold them accountable to the various stakeholders. The transparency of the ESSA Act also forces states to disclose their lowest performing schools while also providing them extra support for improvement (Anonymous 2, 2020). The goal of the ESSA Act was to ensure that students graduating high school were ready for either college or a career and through the use of assessments, make sure everyone was on the same page

Importance of ESSA

ESSA is a means to an end and that end is higher success rates for our students. Where the NCLB Act was intended to highlight successes and opportunity, it lacked the flexibility needed to continue on. ESSA, as a evolution of NCLB, ensures the flexibility for states to determine what is needed to create a more equitable situation for all students and stakeholders. The ESSA act allows for states to create their own approaches to assessment and accountability along with meeting the needs of all students (Smith, 2017). The benefits of ESSA will be seen long term as more students are provided more opportunity to be successful after their K-12 career, reducing standardized testing times, and hopefully increase in class teaching (Staff, 2020).

Evaluation

I was fully aware of the NCLB Act before the readings this week; however, I had never heard of ESSA before. Based off the the readings this week, it seems to be an attempt to allow more freedom for states and schools to assess their student populations, and hopefully create more a successful and knowledgeable workforce. I do need to delve deeper into the success of ESSA during the last 8 years. While, I may not teach in the public school system, I have children that attend local ISD's and would be interested to read about the information provided by ESSA results and how the local ISD has implemented changes to increase success rates. Furthermore, I teach at a very large community college and many of our students are coming in directly from high school or are dual credit students. I would benefit from understanding more of the ESSA process for our local ISD's that feed into my college.

Future Reference:

https://www.nea.org/professional-excellence/student-engagement/tools-tips/why-every-student-succeeds-act-essa-matters

Works Referenced:

Anonymous 1, A. 2. (2020, April 14). The Elementary Secondary Education Act (the every student succeeds act of 2016). Home. Retrieved February 1, 2023, from https://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/essa/index.html

Anonymous 2, A. (2020, October 28). What is the Every Student Succeeds Act? Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. Retrieved February 1, 2023, from https://oese.ed.gov/families/essa/

Smith, R. (2017, March 13). ESSA implementation: An update from Washington DC. ExcelinEd. Retrieved February 1, 2023, from https://excelined.org/2017/03/13/essa-implementation-an-update-from-washington-dc/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=c3quality&gclid=CjwKCAiAuOieBhAIEiwAgjCvcs-qIRgr_Hhmd9pLzq1Apj1xLPc8nIkdJ6pfnualVM2w1EhdzUlerRoCTjwQAvD_BwE

Staff, E. P. & P. (2020, April 1). Just the facts: What you need to know about ESSA. NEA. Retrieved February 1, 2023, from https://www.nea.org/resource-library/just-facts-what-you-need-know-about-essa#:~:text=3.,of%20local%20schools%20is%20incentivized.