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President Obama has signed bipartisan legislation that has gotten rid of another pillar of the failed legacy of George W. Bush. No Child Left Behind is gone.

President Obama called the bill a Christmas miracle, a real bipartisan bill that he got to sign.

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The President praised the bipartisanship behind this bill, “I just want to point out that it’s not as if there weren’t some significant ideological differences on some of these issues. No there were, but I really think this is a good example of how bipartisanship can work. People did not agree on everything at the outset, but they were willing to listen to each other in a civil and constructive way and to work through these issues, compromise when necessary, while still keeping their eye on the ball.”

According to a White House fact sheet the bill that President Obama signed will:

· Ensure states set high standards so that children graduate high school ready for college and career.

· Maintain accountability by guaranteeing that when students fall behind, states target resources towards what works to help them and their schools improve, with a particular focus on the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools, high schools with high dropout rates, and schools where subgroups of students are struggling.

· Empower state and local decision-makers to develop their own strong systems for school improvement based upon evidence, rather than imposing cookie-cutter federal solutions like No Child Left Behind (NCLB) did.

· Preserve annual assessments and reduce the often onerous burden of unnecessary and ineffective testing on students and teachers, making sure that standardized tests don’t crowd out teaching and learning, without sacrificing clear, annual information parents and educators need to make sure our children are learning.

· Provide more children access to high-quality preschool, giving them the chance to get a strong start to their education.

· Establish new resources to test promising practices and replicate proven strategies that will drive opportunity and better outcomes for America’s students.

One of the outcomes of the new law is expected to be a reduction in the amount of standardized testing that today’s students are subjected to.

The Every Student Succeeds Act should be a major improvement on No Child Left Behind. A major subtext of the Obama years has been this president cleaning up the messes left behind by George W. Bush. The Bush legacy of failure has been largely dismantled.

Former President Bush managed to sign an education reform bill that both increased federal involvement in local education and managed to leave tons of children behind by forcing teachers to teach to standardized tests instead of helping students grow and learn.

Another “achievement” of one of the worst presidents in history has been sent to the dustbin as it seems that the one thing that Republicans and Democrats can agree on is the need to get rid of No Child Left Behind.