President Obama’s ‘A Blueprint for Reform: The Re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)’ is an amendment of the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND Act of 2001, to reform response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Re-authorization amendment covers four (4) main areas of policy: 1) to improve teacher and principal effectiveness in schools; 2) to provide information to the families of students; 3) to implement higher education standards; and 4) to improve student performance in the country’s lowest scoring schools through support and intervention. The 2001 Act is U.S. federal Department of Education policy on standardized curriculum in schools. The ESEA blueprint extending the 2001 Act’s framework consists of five ‘5’ core priorities:
1. Standards for Higher Education
The raising of student performance rankings in higher education institutions through the new adopt standards designed to promote competency in disciplinary aspects afforded in the 2001 Act, includes English language arts and mathematics development. Career-readiness is part of the ESEA mandate for realignment of student learning with professional skills enhancement. New assessment systems to capture higher-order skills applications, and measure student growth will better inform policymakers in respect to performance. The perspective of global economy is the guiding principle from which all core curricula should be implemented. Applied learning using evidence based instructional models meets this objective.
2. School Leadership
The ESEA proposal to fund NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND programs in states and districts is done in correspondence with performance reporting. Teacher and administrative school leadership is considered a resource for the improvement of effectiveness in underserved schools. Leaders responsible for tracking equitable access to resources, effective teaching methods, and institutional approaches to retaining those educators are sought as a path to achieving best practices, preparation of programs, and requests for funding of tertiary projects which might enhance those processes. High-poverty and high-minority schools are targeted in President Obama’s reform of the Act.
3. Equitable Education
Accountability that is fair and rigorous is outlined as a priority goal in ESEA reform. The promise of an equitable education across campuses and for all students supports the development of an adequate college and career readiness standards program to reward progress and success in achievement. Individualized education of students requiring diversified instructional methods is part of this plan. The reform policy also covers minority student participation in the development of new instructional methods and application of learning technologies. Equity in education serves as rationale to the request for funds to purchase instructional technologies and pay for teacher continuing education.
4. Raising the Bar of Excellence
Incentives for ESEA systemic reforms to be leveraged at the state level and allocated to school districts for the expansion of public school choice options for students are designed to promote the ‘culture of college readiness’. This meets the 2001 Act’s premise of access to education resources toward improvement of student performance. Increased access to college-level, dual credit, and accelerated courses in traditionally underserved schools fulfills this mandate.
5. Innovation and Improvement
New ESEA competitive funding streams, to tackle persistent student achievement gaps will provide investment in the future of the Department of Education’s NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND program.
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