Ed Policy

No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), 2002

The advancement of disadvantaged students wasn’t a priority to many schools, and concerns were raised regarding the education of the United States population given that it was not viewed as globally competitive. Therefore, a review of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was done and the NCLB was created as an update for it, increasing the role of the federal government in the improvement of education. The NCLB law promised to make the schools accountable for the academic development of all the students. More specifically contributing to accomplish a higher performance for the students of identified groups with lower academic achievement. For example, students of color, English language learners (ELL), students in special education, and students in poverty. Before this act was passed, some students were excluded from general education as well as state tests. Hence, the law was now enforcing that the schools truly helped those students in disadvantage and provide more educational opportunities for them. It was expected that the learning achievement gap was closed by 2014. NCBL required schools to facilitate testing in math and reading once from 3rd grade-8th grade, and high school. If the schools didn’t demonstrate growth penalties would have been faced, such as schools could lose federal Title I money or they could even get shut down. Nevertheless, the methods for ensuring that this goal was met caused dispute. The reliance on tests was heavy, thus the curriculum was affected by this. There wasn't enough funding for it, and what it attempted to achieve wasn’t feasible in that manner which sought to cover the whole country. 

The NCLB was substituted by the ESSA, it decreased the impact of the federal government on education policy and placed more of the responsibility on the state by allowing more flexibility and innovation. The states are now able to have the main role on the decision of how to account for academic performance of all the students. The law requires that the states have an educational plan which includes (but not limited to) the following: academic standards, annual testing, school accountability, goals for academic achievement, plans for supporting and improving struggling schools, state/local report cards. The testing requirements now remain the same as those of the NCLB, but there is now a focus on the accountability of the education of the ELL meaning that it shifted from being in the Title III to Title I. However, in the first year that these students are in the country their test scores aren’t counted for the school rating - their scores are accounted for after they have been here for more than a year. As for the students in special education about 10 percent of them can obtain alternative tests. This Act gives the opportunity for schools to obtain grants; it reflects a more comprehensive view of education beyond standardized testing by consolidating many programs into a $1.6 billion block grant and prioritizing activities that promote student well-roundedness as well as enhancing the support given to the most disadvantaged students. Note that under this act if a school is in the lowest 5 percent or it has a big amount of dropout rates the state evaluates the improvement after the school staff has developed an evidence-based plan, but if given plan doesn’t work in four years the state must take over and priority has to be given to the students that needed more. If there are students of a subgroup struggling in a school the same procedure is followed.

Massachusetts Education Reform Law, 1993

Considering that the state has the main decision on how they want to test the students, nowadays simulations are being considered to be put in place as a question to ensure that the students can apply their knowledge. The public has different opinions regarding the standardized testing, but this traces back to 1993 when the law was passed. Which required that for the high school students to graduate they needed to pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), in the subjects of: math, science and english. The idea behind this law is to increase the academic standards in hand with the performance of students. It’s for this reason that statewide academic standards and curriculum frameworks were put in place, providing a high-quality education throughout all the grade levels and ensuring that at the end the students are actually able to meet the objectives identified for their class. If the students weren’t doing well the school is responsible according to the law, hence maintaining them accountable and if these schools didn’t improve the state takes it or could even lead to closure. Nevertheless, this law also allowed for more charter schools which can have higher standards and more flexibility, to increase the accountability of students' outcomes. In order to improve the general quality of education, it addressed financing gaps by giving low-income and failing schools more funds. Finally, this law also aimed to improve teacher quality by encouraging continuous professional development for educators and enacting new certification criteria.