Implementing the Student Succeeds Act

With ESSA as a guide, education accountability plans will be developed at the state and local levels. Many states are at different points in the process. Get ideas from the front-runners.

- Elizabeth Geli

Music educators and advocates across the country celebrated in December 2015 when President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into law. For the first time, music was specifically mentioned as one of the elements of a well-rounded education, meaning that music programs could be eligible for funds and resources that were previously off limits.

“There was euphoria through the music education community when this hit,” says Chris Woodside, deputy executive director of the National Association for Music Education’s (NAfME’s) Center for Advocacy, Policy and Constituency Engagement. “This was a huge historic milestone for music education in America. It is incredibly symbolic that this happened.”

Unfortunately, government works slowly, and although ESSA is the law of the land, the federal government has yet to pass an accompanying appropriations bill to fund the significant changes and new programs needed across the country.

Leaving Behind "No Child Left Behind"

ESSA is the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, replacing No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Critics of NCLB felt it focused too much on standardized testing and national standards. ESSA gives more control back to the states to determine their own definitions of success and emphasize testing less.

“There’s sort of this migration and phasing out of No Child Left Behind and replacement of that bill with pieces of ESSA,” Woodside says. “The whole package can’t come into play until all the funding has taken place.”