Devina Das

Special Education Law - Every Student Succeeds Act Abstract Every Student Succeeds Act is a significant American special education law. By decentralising the regulation of American public schools to the states, it seeks to make school education more equitable. This paper argues that ESSA has been nicely able to deliver some of its promises that would help revamp the American special education space. Introduction Every Student Succeeds Act (‘ESSA’) is a promising special education law. Passed in 2015, ESSA decentralised the regulation of the American public schools. This paper discusses the current state of ESSA and highlights some of its successes. Historical Background of ESSA ESSA was passed in 2015, replacing the controversial statute, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (‘NCLB’). NCLB required the states to show a steady and measured rise in student achievement levels to satisfy NCLB’s prescribed goals. Failure to meet the federal requirements led to the imposition of penalty on the states. Though NCLB brought in more accountability upon the schools and this states, it was criticised for forcing a one-size fits all approach upon all the schools and students (Young and Peterson, 2003). To plug-in these shortcomings, ESSA was introduced, replacing NCLB (Rich, 2015). ESSA removes the erstwhile strict federal regulation regime on educational curricula, student performance and academic programming, and allows the states more flexibility in defining their own systems of accountability and personalised learning programs (Sharp, 2016). State 1 of 4 and local primacy in education space is something that even the Supreme Court has accepted, long before the ESSA in Brown v. Board of Education (Brown, 1954). Current Status of ESSA As it stands today, ESSA relocates the accountability of the public schools from the national level to the state level to make public school education more equitable and sympathetic to the specific requirements of each states and their students (Egalite, Fusarelli, and Fusarelli, 2017). ESSA gives more power to the states to determine their standard(s) to measure student performance, set up their goals and implementation plans (Green, 2017), which all the states have submitted by 2017. For example, Maryland identified school climate as its performance measurement standard. It seeks to cover four dimensions of school climate for both students and staff relationships, environment, community, and safety. This effort has helped the development of a meaningful accountability indicator to help better development of the schools. Further, New Mexico has also reconsidered its school rating mechanism. It has formulated a new state accountability system for schools by adding new growth indicators. This system measures a school’s performance on state priorities like course and educator access, apart from other federal accountability requirements. Furthermore, Kentucky has shifted its approach in measuring school performance to a condensed list of indicators, across both, current achievement and growth (Meghan, Erwin, and Freemire, 2021). These current practices under the ESSA are welcomed changes and would help bring more equity in the American school education space. 2 of 4 Personal Impact The current ESSA regime brings very promising impacts on me personally as a special educator. For example, it gives me abundant flexibility to create something that channelises state resources on struggling students instead of branding them as failures for not performing well in tests. Further, since ESSA provides the flexibility in choosing the standard(s) to assess the students, I can assess them on standards other than their marks, like, social awareness, behaviour, interpersonal skills, etc., that helps me paint a more holistic picture of the students. Conclusion ESSA has brought in an overhaul in the American school education system. It now holds the states accountable for their schools’ performance by being accommodative towards their priorities and specific circumstances instead of using an external assessment matrix. Notably, it has led to some actual changes being introduced by various states to measure the performance of their schools more holistically. However, the success of ESSA would depend upon the ability of the state, their local agencies, partners, nonprofit groups, etc. to channel their collective expertise and resources towards achieving their common goal. References Egalite, A. J., Fusarelli, L. D., & Fusarelli, B. C. (2017). Will Decentralization Affect Educational Inequity? The Every Student Succeeds Act. Educational Administration Quarterly, 53(5), 757–781. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/-X- García, L. E. (2015, April 21). Get rid of “test, blame, punish”: Opposing view. USA Today. Retrieved November 19, 2021, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/ 3 of 4 2015/04/21/no-child-left-behind-national-education-association-editorials-debates/-/ Green, E. L. (2017, July 7). DeVos’s Hard Line on New Education Law Surprises States. New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/ 2017/07/07/us/politics/devos-federal-education-law-states.html Meghan, M. C., Erwin, B., & Freemire, L. (2021, March 29). The Every Student Succeeds Act: 5 Years Later. EdNote. Retrieved November 19, 2021, from https:// ednote.ecs.org/the-every-student-succeeds-act-5-years-later/ Rich, M. (2015, March 20). No Child Left Behind Law Faces Its Own Reckoning. New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/ us/politics/schools-wait-to-see-what-becomes-of-no-child-left-behind-law.html Sharp, L. A. (2016). ESEA Reauthorization: An Overview of the Every Student Succeeds Act. Texas Journal of Literacy Education, 4(1), 9–13. Young, M. & Peterson, G. (2003). The No Child Left Behind Act and its Influence on Current and Future District Leaders. Journal of Law and Education, 33, 289–309. 4 of 4