WASHINGTON — Even though states have new flexibility under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) — the new federal education law that replaced the punitive No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which held states accountable for having all students proficient in reading and math by 2014 — their departments of education aren’t set up to take advantage of it.
So argued Pedro Noguera, distinguished professor of education and director of the Center for the Study of School Transformation at UCLA, at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), which drew a record crowd of more than 16,000 attendees.
“Not a single state department of education in this country is oriented or knows how to help schools,” Noguera said.
“They’re all oriented to focus on compliance. That’s what they do,” Noguera said. “There’s going to have to be a major shift to get them to think about new ways of assessing, performance, capacity, support in schools.”
He said such a shift would be a “challenge.”
It so happens that U.S. Secretary of Education John King is expected to share his perspectives on ESSA implementation in states and school districts this Tuesday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions.
Noguera made his remarks during a panel discussion titled, “Where Might the 2016 Election Year Take Us? Exploring the Implications of Political Framing for Future Education Legislation.”
