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Two Years Ago In December Of 2015, A New Education Law

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Two years ago in December of 2015, a new education law called Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), was signed by President Obama in hopes to better prepare students for college and set them up for future careers. The previous education law that was in place, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, was enacted in 2002. “NCLB represented a significant step forward for our nation’s children in many respects, particularly as it shined a light on where students were making progress and where they needed additional support, regardless of race, income, zip code, disability, home language, or background” (U.S Department of Education. n.d.). Over time, these requirements stopped showing improvement in schools and educators spoke out about a revision …show more content…

Another important one I want to highlight is to “maintains an expectation that there will be accountability and action to effect positive change in our lowest-performing schools, where groups of students are not making progress, and where graduation rates are low over extended periods of time” (U.S Department of Education. n.d.) However, it was along these same guidelines that sparked the increase and importance of standardized testing in American schools, which have forced teachers to teach to the test, and make sure all students do their best to help their schools look the best. In Massachusetts, there are levels of accountability for MCAS that are ranked from 1 to 5, with the highest performing in Level 1 and lowest performing in Level 5 Schools. “The strength of this accountability system is undergirded by the state 's 2010 Act Relative to the Achievement Gap, which provides tools, rules, and supports for the state to aggressively engage with schools and districts in Level 4 Districts and Schools and 5” (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2017). In November, a plan to add on to MCAS testing was approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which would ensure that “all districts who administered PARCC in grades 3–8 in the spring of 2015 do so again in 2016. For those school districts that administered MCAS in the spring of 2015, they have the opportunity to give out the test again in the spring of 2016, or instead give out

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