Gary Brande Advancing Music Education Chair
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
and What It Means for Music and Arts Education by Marcia Neel
The author, Marcia Neel is the Senior Director of Education for the Band and Orchestral division of Yamaha Corporation of America. She also serves as the Education Advisor to the Music Achievement Council, is also President of Music Education Consultants, Inc. and was the former Coordinator of Secondary Fine Arts for the Clark County School District headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The author would like to thank Mary Luehrsen, Executive Director of the NAMM Foundation, and Lynn Tuttle, Director of Content and Policy for the National Association for Music Education, for their extensive and comprehensive contributions in the preparation of this article. Luehrsen is NAMM’s chief strategist for education policy and music education advocacy. Tuttle currently serves as the AMEA Advocacy Chair and was the Director of Arts Education at the Arizona Department of Education from 2003-2015.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and What It Means for Music and Arts Education
What is it? A brief background In December of 2015, with bi-partisan support, President Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) thereby reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) first signed into law in 1965 by President Johnson. Within the current law, there are a number of “Titles” which deal with various facets of the Act—many of which have been established along the way in subsequent reauthorizations after the initial signing of ESEA. The most well-known of these Titles is “Title I” as it makes up most the total funds allocated. Prior to the signing of ESSA, the last reauthorization of ESEA was the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) which was signed into law in 2001 by President George W. Bush.
What are the major changes from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and why is this important for Music and Arts Education? One of the biggest changes is that decision-making and accountability measures will no longer be dictated from the federal level—they will now originate from each individual state. State education agencies (SEAs) are currently in varying stages of developing and/or revising their State Plans to meet the provisions within ESSA and are expected to submit them to the U.S. Department of Education.
Also, ESSA places a focus on the providing of a “Well-Rounded Education” for all students. ESSA defines a “Well- Rounded Education” as follows.
S. 1177-298 (52): Definitions (Well-Rounded Education) The term “well-rounded education” means courses, activities, and programming in subjects such as English, reading or language arts, writing, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, geography, computer science, music, career and technical
See NEEL, pg. 30
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