Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Jan. 7, 2016, edition 1 / Page 4
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Local schools wait on instructions from state after Every Student Succeeds Act passed BY TEVIN STINSON THE CHRONICLE . It was a major moment in educational history last month when President Barack Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). But what does the act mean for the schools in Winston Salem and Forsyth County? On Dec. 9 the Senate voted overwhelmingly, 85 12, to replace the No Child Left Behind Act, which was signed by President George W. Bush in 2002. Under ESSA, less empha sis will be placed on stan dardized testing. Although public school students will still be required to take statewide reading and math exams, the new law encourages states to limit the time stu dents spend on testing and preparing for testing. The act will also place the power of education into the hands of the individual states instead of the U.S. Department of Education, meaning the state will determine how to turn things around at low- per forming schools. According to numerous reports, the state will be required to intervene at ele mentary and middle schools that perform at the bottom five percent of all schools, and high schools that graduate less than 70 percent of their students. Winston Salem/Forsyth County Schools' spokesman Theo Helm said the local board is still waiting on instruc tion from the state to deter mine the impact of the law. "We are not sure yet of many of the effects," said Helm. "We are waiting to see what North Carolina and the Department of Public Instruction do before we really know the impacts." Helm mentioned the law wouldn't be imple mented until mid-2017. While the school board is waiting to see how the new education law will affect the students, a number of parents don't believe giv ing individual states power is the best news for schools in North Carolina. "The way our educa tion system is run in this state, ESS A may be bad news for students in this area," said Mildred Brown, parent of two. "The local board has had their dis agreements with the state in the past, and I think the act will make that relation ship worse." Last year the State Board of Education changed the defmition of a low-performing school which more than doubled the number of subpar schools in the state. Superintendent Beverly Emory and the Board of Education showed their displeasure with the change by implementing their own grading scale that district leaders believed gave more accu rate grades based on growth and student devel opment. "We developed our own grading scale because the state grades did not reflect what we thought was most important." said Emory. "The states grades put too much emphasize on standardized tests and not growth." A number of national civil rights organizations have voiced their opinions on the act in recent weeks. According to the The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, although the ESSA is an improvement from No Child Left Behind, it falls short in some areas. A letter submitted to members of congress reads, "There are several important areas in which the bill falls short. The Every Student Succeeds Act's language on resource equity requires states to consider longstanding resource disparities, but does not go far enough to address them in a meaning ful way by holding states accountable for these dis parities." The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is made up of more than 200 national organizations that promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The letter sent to Congress can be read in its entirety on the organiza tions official website, civil rights .org. While the local board awaits answers from the state, Helm mentioned no matter what changes may occur the goal of the local school board will not change. "Regardless of who is making the decisions, our goal of providing the best education possible for our students will remain the same." Obama signs the Every Student Succeeds Act; law overhauls 'No Child' BY JENNIFER C. KERR ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - Calling it a "Christmas miracle," President Barack Obama signed a sweeping overhaul of the No Child Left Behind education law, ushering in a new approach to accountability, teacher evaluations and the way the most poorly performing schools are pushed to improve. Joined by lawmakers, students and teachers in a White House auditorium, Obama praised the George W. Bush-era No Child Left Behind for having the right goals. He said that in prac tice, it fell short or applied a cookie-cutter approach that failed to produce desired results. Under the new law, the federal government will shift more decision-making powers back to states. "With this bill, we reaffirm that fundamental ly American ideal that every child ? regardless of race, gender, back ground, ZIP code ? deserves the chance to make out of their lives what they want," Obama said. "This is a big step in the right direction." The overhaul ends more than a decade of what critics have derided as one size-fits-ail federal policies dictating accountability and improvement for the nation's 100,000 or so pub lic schools. But one key feature remains: Students will still take federally required statewide reading and math exams. Still, the new law encourages states to limit the time students spend on testing and diminishes the high stakes for underper forming schools. .The long-awaited bill to replace the 2002 law easily passed the Senate and the House, in- a rare President Barack Obama signs the Every Student Succeeds Act. example of the Republican-controlled Congress and Obama find ing common ground on major legislation. Obama held it up as an "example of how bipartisanship should work," noting that opposing sides had com promised to reach a deal. "That's something that you don't always see here in Washington'," Obama said. "There wasn't a lot of grandstanding, a lot of pos turing, just a lot of good, hard work." Rep. John Kline, R Minn., who chairs the House's education panel, said under^ the new approach, American class rooms will no longer be "micromanaged" by the Education Department in Washington. "Instead, parents, teachers, and state and local education leaders will regain control of their schools," said Kline, part of the bipartisan quartet that spearheaded the bill, which was signed on Thursday, Dec. 10. | February 22 - 27,2016 Charlotte, NC Time Warner Cable Arena Disclaimer: There are a limited number of tickets available in each section. Therefore tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. If your request cannot be met, you will be Contacted by the WSSU Ticket Office. WSSU TICKET INFORMATION Quads $225.00 1 Endzone $175.00 Upper $50.00 nn 2 TIT JWP?T?? 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Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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