A Nation at Risk
What decade did A Nation at Risk come out? (60s, 70s, 80s, 90s?)
Who was the president behind the No Child Left Behind act?
Who was the president behind Race to the Top?
Barack Obama
Which president STARTED the Every Student Succeeds Act? Who took it over after?
Barack Obama started it, Trump took it over
What practice in public schools did Brown v. Board of Education rule unconstitutional?
Racial segregation in public schools
What was the main concern raised by A Nation at Risk about American schools?
That the quality of American education was not meeting the nation's needs and that student achievement and academic standards needed improvement.
What did the No Child Left behind Act increase within schools?
It led to an increase in standardized testing
True or false: Race to the Top was a program that automatically gave equal funding to every state/school district
False: It was a competitive grant program
What decade was ESSA enacted? The 80s, 90s, early 2000's, or 2010's?
2010's, the exact year was 2015
In what year did the Supreme Court decide Brown v. Board of Education?
1954
Who was the president who was behind A Nation at Risk?
Ronald Raegan
What were the academic subjects that were tested under No Child Left Behind?
reading and mathematics
Name two areas of education reform encouraged by Race to the Top.
Examples include improving teacher and principal effectiveness, developing data systems, adopting college- and career-ready standards, turning around low-performing schools, and expanding certain school-choice or charter-school initiatives.
Under ESSA, who has more flexibility to decide how schools are evaluated and held accountable: the federal government or individual states?
Individual States
Imagine a school district says, “Our Black students and white students attend separate schools, but we provide both schools with the same books and supplies, so everything is fair!
True or false, this would be considered illegal after Brown vs Board of education?
True this would be considered illegal
True or False: A nation at risk led to historic improvements in the education system in the US
Under No Child Left Behind, what was the purpose of requiring schools to test students in reading and mathematics every year in grades 3–8 and at least once in high school?
To measure student achievement, track academic progress, identify achievement gaps, and hold schools accountable for student performance.
How did Race to the Top differ from No Child Left Behind in how schools and states were held accountable for improving education?
No Child Left Behind established federal testing and accountability requirements, while Race to the Top offered competitive federal grants to states that adopted specific education reforms.
What is one major difference between ESSA and NCLB?
ESSA gives states more flexibility in designing accountability systems and deciding how to support struggling schools, while NCLB prescribed more specific federal accountability requirements and consequences
How did Brown v. Board of Education challenge the earlier legal principle established by Plessy v. Ferguson?
Brown rejected the application of the “separate but equal” doctrine to public education, ruling that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal under the Constitution.
How did A Nation at Risk influence the education reform movement in the United States?
It brought national attention to school performance and helped encourage reforms focused on academic rigor, standards, accountability, and teacher quality.
No Child Left Behind aimed to ensure that all students received a quality education. Explain one way the law could help students and one way its accountability requirements could create challenges for teachers or schools.
Help = It made achievement gaps more visible by requiring schools to report results for different student groups, encouraging schools to address disparities.
Challenges: Heavy emphasis on standardized test performance could encourage teaching to the test, narrow the curriculum, or place pressure on teachers and schools serving students with greater needs.
Imagine you are the principal of a school, and your state wants to win Race to the Top funding. Your principal asks you to pitch one creative idea to improve student achievement. What is one reform your school could propose that might help your state compete for the funding?
answers vary
ESSA requires states to consider more than just test scores when evaluating schools. Name one other factor a state could use.
Graduation rates, English learner progress, or a measure of school quality or student success, such as school climate.
Brown v. Board of Education made school segregation unconstitutional. Why did this ruling not automatically produce equal educational opportunities for all students?
Legal decisions do not automatically eliminate discrimination or inequality. Resistance to desegregation, slow implementation, housing segregation, unequal school resources, and other systemic barriers continued to affect educational opportunities.