Christopher Cervantes
[email protected]

When you come from a family of educators, you get to witness a lot of interesting things. For one thing, they talk a lot. Whether it is about that one problem student or an entire class’ interest in their work, there is always a plethora of opinions just waiting to fall from the tongue. There was always a specific topic that would incite a heated discussion: the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Like my memories, the Bush policy is now a thing of the past.

On Dec. 10, President Obama signed a new bill, replacing the controversial act with Every Student Succeeds. Obama went on record stating that the bipartisan bill a “Christmas miracle.”

No Child Left Behind came to fruition because of concern over the achievement gap that left certain students (poor, minority, etc.) in underperforming schools. In response to this growing worry, the Bush administration established a policy based on the grounds of specific standardized testing and accountability. This meant that the schools had to improve the scores of all their students.

In retrospect, this is a case of good intent with faulty execution.

As time passed, the flaws in the policy began to shine through the painted-on perfection of a hopeful beginning. Many complaints have been lodged, mostly aimed at the unrealistic goals that were expected of the schools. The amount of funding given to a school would often hinge on the goals that many an educator saw as unreasonable. This in turn led to several cheating scandals orchestrated by administrations in desperate attempts to acquire federal aid. When it gets to the point of academic fraud, then it is time to go back to the drawing board.

And now there is a new plan ready to be put in effect.

“The goals of No Child Left Behind, the predecessor of this law, were the right ones: high standards. Accountability. Closing the achievement gap,” Obama said in a statement. “But in practice, it often fell short. It didn’t always consider the specific needs of each community. It led to too much testing during classroom time. It often forced schools and school districts into cookie-cutter reforms that didn’t always produce the kinds of results that we wanted to see.”

In a way, the Every Student Succeeds law is a spiritual successor to its somewhat lackluster predecessor. However, is this law an improvement? Or simply a sequel ripe to be publicly panned?

Every Student Succeeds is more specific concerning which schools need improvement. However, it is not as clear when it comes to rectifying the problems. The new law also allows for more flexibility on testing. But then again, sometimes flexibility can create its own problems by not being strict in having a standard response to issues, similar situations could be handled differently, creating a disparity in the education system.

The sad truth with a policy change such as this is that in order to gauge true effectiveness, the law must be put to the test. Whether it will be for better or worse is simply a factor revealed by the passage of time. Not being able to gauge progress immediately may not be convenient, but it is all we have. All I ask is that we try to remain hopeful toward Every Student Succeeds.