I was not sure if anyone had actually sat down and read every word of the 1,061 pages of the Every Child Succeeds Act of 2015. It was passed today and is on its way to the President’s desk for his signature.
The Badass Teachers Association created a committee of five classroom teachers who did read every word of what will soon be the new law governing public (and charter) education in the United States.
Their analysis highlights both the good and the bad in the bill. None of their concerns were addressed. The bill dismantles NCLB but allows more charters, more room for TFA, “Pay for Success” for investors, and a bunch of other things that teachers worry about. And of course the teachers object to annual testing, which wastes instructional time and narrows curriculum.
It is a fine statement and I recommend that you read it, because it was written by classroom teachers who know how the law is going to affect them and their students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I share the concerns of BATs. The feds have made it clear that our most vulnerable students including special education, ELLs, and compensatory reading and math, which cost districts a tidy sum to serve, will be subject to endless corporate experimentation and exploitation. The ESSA is a gross miscarriage of justice in the name of faux “innovation.” It is more appropriate to call their plan “personalized exploitation” of children of poverty and handicapped students, as it is shameful and discriminatory. It is a step back into the nineteenth century using twenty-first century technology.
I read it and I used parts of their summary from Title I etc. to formulate my emails and phone calls to Ed Markey’s office. (the ESL/ELL) There were at least 3 or 4 points in the BATS summary that were well worth the time to invest to call Markey’s office and to write on his contact page by embellishing on the outline that BATS prepared. I was given a name of Markey’s educational aide when I called. Alex_Jones@markey.senate.gov and although the ESEA reauthorization has been passed we have a lot of work to do in the state levels. Markey has had an interest in the FERPA laws in particular so one of my emails concerned that… (data mining).
It is a fine statement and I recommend that you read it, because it was written by classroom teachers who know how the law is going to affect them and their students.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
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Public “Education is the civil rights issue of our time.”
Today ESEA proposes to push responsibility for public education back towards states…………
I am not optimistic about motives or efficacy of 50 individual states, or thousands of individual communities dealing separately with Education as a civil right…
Meanwhile, Millions of injured children whose pleas are not being heard are waiting at the intersection of the “Defending Childhood” Report from the U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Congress’s rewrite of “No Child Left Behind” education (ESEA) legislation.
In the spirit of open discussion: #SlowDownESEA #StopESEA