Joanne Yatvin, retired teacher, principal, and superintendent, wrote the following about the likely consequences of the new Every Student Succeeds Act. Much policy has shifted to the states, but the assumptions that undergird policy remain unchanged. Only citizens acting together can change the fundamental assumptions, by taking action in their respective states.

Yatvin writes:

The major changes in the Every Student Succeeds (ESSA) law are the shift from Federal control to state control and the removal of the rewards and punishments for schools that were used by the the Department of Education to ensure compliance. Yearly student tests will continue, but they will be chosen or designed by the states. In addition, the effectiveness of schools will be judged on more evidence than just test scores. Finally, actions to improve the performance of students in high poverty schools will be the central focus of states for the next several years. Although these changes promise better days for our public schools in the future, I still see much to be concerned about.

First and foremost, the beliefs that have dominated American education over the past twenty-some years still hold sway among decision makers and the public at large. Those beliefs were first voiced in a 1983 report by a commission created by President Ronald Reagan, titled, “A Nation at Risk.” Its central theme was that the United States’ educational system was failing to meet the national need for a competitive workforce. On the opening page the report declared, “The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.” And it continued with a frightening possibility: “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

Like its predecessor, ESSA will operate on the same beliefs about our system of public education, and for that reason states will be inclined to identify the same goals and use similar strategies to reach them. We are not done with judging our students, teachers, and schools mainly by test scores, or believing that comparisons with other countries’ scores on international tests are meaningful. Nor, are we done with top-down decision making on what, when, and how our students should learn, in disregard of teachers’ knowledge and experience. Many state legislatures–and their constituents–will continue to believe that charter schools, on the whole, are better than public schools and move to increase them. And some of those states will continue to offer vouchers to a few students to attend private or religious schools in the belief that they are throwing life preservers to drowning children.

Can these aberrations be stopped? The only way I see is for parents, teachers, and informed citizens to strengthen their efforts to support our public schools. We need to put pressure on state legislatures to use their funds and power to make intelligent decisions for our schools. If we are silent, thinking that all is well now that NCLB is dead, the future will be no better than the past.

Politico reports that President Obama will sign the Every Student Succeeds Act today, right now, this morning, wasting no time. ESSA is an unusual example of both national teachers’ unions working closely with the GOP majority in Congress. The unions are enthusiastic about the bill and lobbied Congress heavily to remove AYP and other obnoxious features of NLB and Race to the Top.

Here is Hillary’s take:

– Democratic 2016 frontrunner Hillary Clinton praised the bill, saying it wasn’t perfect, but it “retains a commitment to high academic standards, enables communities to strike a better balance on testing, requires districts and states to take action to turn around struggling schools, and allows states to take a holistic approach when measuring school success.” One of her Democratic opponents, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, sat out the Senate’s vote today. So did two Republican candidates, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, although the latter put out a statement denouncing the bill. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, another 2016 contender, was one of 12 senators who voted no. Kimberly Hefling with more: http://politico.pro/1RFsP08.

– Some sharp eyes noticed that Clinton praised the bill for making resources available to “expand high-quality public charter schools.” Was this a deliberate attempt to tone down her rhetoric? Clinton has been a long time charter supporter, but issued a pretty strident rebuke to the sector last month [http://politi.co/1HsRpP4].

– As Obama signs the bill , the White House is releasing a report of progress made in K-12 education since he took office and how ESSA will cement that progress. The report: http://bit.ly/1lwetDg.

The Every Student Succeeds Act strips away the Secretary of Education’s authority to involve himself or herself in state and local matters. It diminishes the federal role in education. It is a direct repudiation of Arne Duncan’s insistence on imposing his whims and wishes onto state policies.

Yet, Arne Duncan says he is very pleased with the new law!

Here is Peter Greene’s analysis. Of course, with a bill that is more than 1,000 pages long, there is room for interpretation, but it is hard to see an interpretation here that enables anyone to see this bill as confirmation of the principles of Race to the Top. If the states want to continue its bad policies, they are free to do so. If not, not.

Greene writes:

So Duncan leaves as he came– making word-noises that actually sound pretty good, but are attached to policies and a reality that does not reflect them at all. Duncan never held himself responsible for the progress of students, choosing instead to blame bad, lazy teachers and low-information parents (so long, white suburban moms) and a Congress that wouldn’t behave as he wanted it to. He never held himself responsible by bothering to see if there was a lick of real research and support for any of his favored policies, from “high standards” to VAM-sauce teacher evaluations to the fundamental question of how schools could be held responsible for erasing the effects of poverty and special needs while states could not be held responsible for getting those schools the resources and support they needed. Duncan leaves as he arrived– eyes fixed on some alternate reality while in the real world, he hacks public education to bits and sells off the pieces.
And he’s perfectly okay with ESSA. That is not a good sign.

I don’t share Greene’s fear that ESSA preserves any part of Duncan’s toxic legacy. I think this is a case of making lemonade out of lemons, or putting a positive spin on what amounts to a punch in the face.