Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas recently attended a meeting in Washington, D.C. with the Council of Chief State School Officers in which the upcoming implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was discussed.
“I was pleased to hear updates on the ongoing process to develop regulations that will ultimately shape how states implement ESSA,” said Superintendent Douglas. “As the new law is put into practice here in Arizona, my hope is that federal education officials will honor Congress’ intent and give our state increased flexibility and control when making decisions about the education of our children.”
ESSA, which represents the latest update to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), is scheduled to be implemented in the 2017-2018 school year. It will replace No Child Left Behind (NCLB) as the primary federal legislation addressing America’s public education system.
“Arizonans must have a strong voice as these changes go into effect, so I look forward to hearing parent and stakeholder feedback on ESSA during my upcoming tour of the state,” the Superintendent continued. “My team at the Department is diligently developing an implementation strategy and will incorporate the thoughts of our citizens to create a proposal that truly meets the needs of Arizona students.”
The Superintendent’s 2016 We Are Listening Tour will kick off on May 9 in Buckeye and is scheduled to continue through the end of the year with planned stops across the state. In addition to gathering feedback on ESSA at each tour stop, the Superintendent also will be sharing updates on the progress of several proposals outlined in her AZ Kids Can’t Wait! Plan. The plan, which was released on Oct. 1, 2015, resulted from comments collected during last year’s We Are Listening Tour.
While Douglas hopes DOE officials will honor Congress’ intent, Arizona parents hope Arizona officials will honor that intent and recognize the freedom the State now has under federal statute in terms of high-stakes standardized testing.
Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, Education Committee chair, said there is already “disturbing evidence” that the Education Department is ignoring the law that Congress passed in December and told the Education Secretary he would use “every power of Congress to make sure the law is implemented the way we wrote it.”
“The Department of Education had become a national school board, telling Washington state how to evaluate teachers, telling Kansas what their standards must be, and telling Tennessee how to fix failing schools,” stated Alexander. “The legislation we passed got rid of all that. And then—it went further—to the extraordinary length of putting in statute explicit prohibitions on the department in anticipation of another effort at regulatory overreach.”