Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)
History
- The ESEA was originally passed as part of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration’s War on Poverty campaign
- Original goal (still remains) was to improve educational equity for students from lower-income families by providing federal funds to school districts serving poor students
- Before the federal government started requiring states to test every student (almost) every year as a condition of receiving ESEA $, there wasn’t enough data to tell how specific groups of students were performing. States were able to just look at the average scores and assume everything was okay.
- Now able to look deeper into how groups of students perform- obvious that the under-achievement of the most vulnerable students had been masked in the old system of reporting.
- African American, Hispanic, special education, English-language-learning and many other students were being left out or left behind because schools were not held accountable for their individual progress and growth
Who Does It Benefit?
Reauthorizations & Criticisms
What Is It?
- Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981
- Improving America's Schools Act of 1994
- The current reauthorization of this bill is the No Child Left Behind Act, which was signed into law in 2001.
- http://www.k12.wa.us/esea/
- https://www.acteonline.org/esea/#.WK9PZLYrLxQ
- http://educationpost.org/issues/taking-responsibility/esea-reauthorization/abcs-esea-child-left-behind/
- http://education.laws.com/elementary-and-secondary-education-act
- The federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), enacted in 1965, is the nation’s national education law and shows a longstanding commitment to equal opportunity for all students.
- Prior to this law, the federal gov. had very little involvement in education
- This Act changed that and despite provisions against a national curriculum, set national standards for achievement.
- This did not account for the time it would take very impoverished and low achieving schools to catch up with their peers.
- Typically, school districts serving poor students receive less state and local funding than those serving more affluent children. Why? Usually because local property taxes are typically the primary funding source for schools, and property values are much lower in poorer areas.
- Thus, this law benefits those students belonging to such schools
- Children of low-income families, particularly rural, Native American, neglected, migrant, homeless and English language limited families are the primary target of the provisions of this bill.