Obama signs No Child replacement law, giving states control over tests

President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act this morning, giving Georgia and other states control over how they use the results of high-stakes annual tests.

“You still have testing but it reduces the mandate and gives the local boards of education and states the ability to let parents opt out,” U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who helped write the legislation, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Senate passed it by an overwhelming, bipartisan margin Wednesday, as the House did the week before.

The law replaces the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, derisively called the “test-and-punish” law. Now, it is up to Georgia’s political leaders to decide whether and how much testing is needed to hold schools and teachers accountable.