President Lyndon Baines Johnson believed “full educational opportunity” should be “our first national goal.” In 1965, he signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) into law. From its inception, ESEA was a civil rights law. This law provided state educational agencies with new federal grants to improve the quality of elementary and secondary education in districts needing textbooks, library books, funding for special education, and scholarships for low income college students.

Fast forward to 2001 and the creation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). President George W. Bush’s appointed team of education leaders exposed achievement gaps among traditionally under-served students and their peers, therefore spurring an important national dialogue on education improvement. A focus on accountability was critical in ensuring a quality education for all children; however, this focus on accountability also revealed many challenges in the effective implementation of this goal.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, enacted in 2002, represented a significant step forward for our nation’s children in many respects. It shed light on where students were making progress and where they needed additional support regardless of race, income, zip code, disability, home language, or background. NCLB was up for revision in 2007. Over time, its prescriptive requirements became increasingly unworkable for schools and educators. Many states found NCLB goals to be unrealistic and got around them by either creating “super subgroups” that lumped all disadvantaged students together, or changing to more subjective measures like parent/teacher involvement. Recognizing this fact, in 2010, President Barrack Obama’s administration joined a call from educators and families to create a better law focusing on the goal of fully preparing all students for success in college and careers.

In 2012, the Obama administration began granting flexibility to states regarding specific requirements of NCLB in exchange for more rigorous and comprehensive state-developed plans designed to close achievement gaps, increase equity, improve the quality of instruction, and increase outcomes for all students. On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Lawmakers tout the new law as a more flexible approach to student testing and school accountability, once again making states responsible for fixing under-performing schools. This bipartisan measure reauthorized Johnson’s 50-year-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the nation’s national education law and longstanding commitment to equal opportunity for all students. ESSA builds upon key areas of progress made in recent years by the efforts of educators, communities, parents, and students across the country. The new law leaves accountability goals almost entirely up to the states. States must submit their accountability plans to the Department of Education, which still has a limited oversight role. Today, high school graduation rates are at all-time highs. Dropout rates are at historic lows, and more students are going to college than ever before. These achievements provide a firm foundation for expanding educational opportunities and improving student outcomes under ESSA, including provisions to help ensure success for students and schools. The new law is much more specific about which schools need intervention but much less specific on what those interventions should be. Schools at the bottom 5% of assessment scores (as defined by the state), high schools that graduate less than 67% of students, or schools where subgroups are consistently under-performing would be considered failing and could be subject to state takeover — although the law doesn’t say what the state needs to do.

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) – 2015: