Our Assessment of ESSA: Every Student Succeeds Act

By Jose Castaneda, Lorrie Marino, Stephanie Panchig, Teresa Robles, Maggie Sebastian

As a matter of equality and social justice, we believe that there should be a standardized testing and funding for all states. A student may have a desire to be a successful member of society, but when the school system is not designed to help all students thrive, the discrepancies in the system and students falling through the cracks become more evident. Unfortunately, most of the time those who fall through the cracks are those who are less privileged in terms of their race, gender, class and/or those suffering from learning disabilities. We feel that these students who do not successfully graduate from high school can hinder their chances of a higher education, but it can also lead to more complex social problems that can escalate homelessness, welfare aid and incarceration rates.

The implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) will begin in the 2017–18 academic year. Even though some provisions in this new policy are being well received, we find that some areas are still not being addressed. One of the biggest complaints with the NCLB Act was that student’s individual academic performance, and overall performance of schools, was based on standardized testing, which is still an integral part of ESSA. We feel that students of high poverty and low achieving schools will still remain the most vulnerable population. There has been a push for more charter schools with this new policy, but it does not address the needs of students with disabilities or English-as-a-second-language learning students.

This new policy encompasses grades K-12, but does not invest in any type of early education programs, leaving the needs of preschoolers especially in low-income neighborhoods unmet.

We feel that unintended consequences of this policy are the continued inequality in educational standards due to not addressing the various levels of need within the school districts. This is especially true among high-poverty low-achieving schools. We feel that there may be an increase in dropout rates due to requirements and implementation of standardized testing, which does not take into account students who qualify for special education.