By Adam Studzinski
BLOOMINGTON – Many local school districts are celebrating Friday after the president on Thursday signed the Every Child Succeeds Act.
The bill replaces No Child Left Behind, which many had said took too much control away from individual districts.
“Just really happy that the president and Congress has worked together to make these changes to remove a lot of the onerous aspects of No Child Left Behind, and really return the governance and the decision making to the state and local level,” Regional Superintendent of Schools Mark Jontry said.
Jontry oversees Regional Office of Education #17, which covers McLean, Livingston, Logan, and DeWitt counties.
“No Child Left Behind, really, was pretty onerous in terms of assessments being the driving factor in how you evaluater the success or, quote on quote, failure of a district,” said Jontry. “When really there is so much more that goes into how well a school district performs.”
Jontry added every district is unique, with their own strengths and weaknesses, and No Child Left Behind took more of a “one shoe fits all” approach to the situation.
Adam Studzinski can be reached at adam.studzinski@cumulus.com.
