Learning From the Past: What ESSA Has the Chance to Get Right

Signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaces No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. NCLB and its Reading First mandate brought punitive accountability models and scripted core curricula into schools. Based on the language of ESSA, there are opportunities to shift away from NCLB's models and curricula and toward a curriculum that supports the development of teacher expertise and children's reading behaviors. In this Inside Track piece, the author explores what we learned from the flaws of NCLB and discusses ways in which ESSA can shift literacy teaching and learning. She calls for educators and scholars to work with other stakeholders to make sense of the new law and to redefine common language used in NCLB and ESSA to better match the goals of literacy education.