you've probably heard of No Child Left Behind the federal education law that's been on the books since 2002 the era of No Child Left Behind a la a lot of people really hated is over and the every student succeeds Act has replacement there are a lot of questions now about how essa as it's called will work so how is as a different from the No Child Left Behind Act so No Child Left Behind put a lot of power in the hands of the federal government and we're kind of a big dog on the block and essa seeks to really roll that back roll that back hitting states and school districts the chance to call the shots on things like testing teacher quality and fixing failing schools No Child Left Behind is working this bill makes long overdue fixes to the last education do kids still have to take tests every year so let me think about that yes kids still have to take yearly tests in reading and math in grades three through eight plus one time in high school and schools still have to report test scores how does SR rate school's differently the question so even though kids still have to take those yearly tests I so want States to look at a broader range of factors states have to pick at least one other indicator that gets at whether kids have the opportunity to learn that can be access to advanced coursework maybe school climate plus asset gets States a lot more flexibility when it comes to the tests themselves districts could decide that high school kids use the SAT or the AC T instead of the state exam plus under essa a handful of states can experiment with new forms of testing allowing students to work together on performance tasks instead of those fill in the bubble tests that we're all used to what kinds of requirements does Esso have for teachers so under No Child Left Behind teachers had to be highly qualified that meant that they had to have a bachelor's degree in the subject they were teaching plus state certification a few years ago the Education Department gave States some wiggle room on that requirement as long as they promise to evaluate teachers in part based on student test scores as it ended up though a lot of teachers found that frustrating was really hard to get those evaluations right under the new law now states are in the driver's seat when it comes to teachers they can decide if they want to stick with highly qualified for those evaluations based on test scores but they don't have to do Peter and what is SSA about the common core so a sub says states must set standards the get students ready for college without the need to take remedial courses but the federal government can't tell States what their standards should be or encourage them to adopt a certain set of standards including the common core what does SSA about low-performing students States will still have to identify and fix the bottom 5% of schools and those with really high dropout rates hold on a moment as I saw already his school's not right yet it won't be fully in place until the 2017 80s many of the decisions about how to judge student performance improve schools and old teachers accountable are gonna have to be made by states and districts if they choose to stick what they're doing now things aren't going to change very much if they go off in a very different direction though you can see big changes