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State and school district officials who have complained for years that an inflexible, overprescriptive federal role in public education is at the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act seem to have finally gotten their wish: a replacement law that scales back Washington鈥檚 K-12 footprint for the first time in more than a quarter-century.

Now, big questions loom about just where states and districts will take the leeway granted to them under the newly minted Every Student Succeeds Act鈥攁nd just how their decisions will affect the perennially foundering schools and traditionally overlooked groups of students and schools the NCLB law was designed to help.

It鈥檚 equally unclear just how much power the U.S. Department of Education will have when the law, the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, is fully implemented.

The new law鈥攁lready widely known by the acronym ESSA鈥攕lims down the U.S. Department of Education, consolidating nearly 50 programs, including elementary and secondary counseling, into a giant block grant.

It also aims to crack down on the U.S. secretary of education鈥檚 authority when it comes to standards, assessments, school turnarounds, teacher evaluation, and other areas.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a key architect of ESSA, said he thinks the federal role will be 鈥渧ery different鈥� from here on out.

鈥淲hat I believe is that when we take the handcuffs off, we鈥檒l unleash a whole flood of innovation and ingenuity classroom by classroom, state by state, that will benefit children,鈥� Alexander said in an interview. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got a law that will govern the federal role in K-12 education for 10 or 20 years.鈥�

Bipartisan Consensus

In signing ESSA on Dec. 10, 2015, President Barack Obama was on the same page鈥攁t least rhetorically.

The NCLB law, launched under his predecessor, President George W. Bush, had good intentions, Obama said, but it 鈥渙ften forced schools and school districts into cookie-cutter reforms that didn鈥檛 always produce the kinds of results that we wanted to see.鈥�

The new law 鈥渃reates real partnerships between the states, which will have new flexibility to tailor their improvement plans, and the federal government, which will have the oversight to make sure that the plans are sound.鈥�

And Obama said ESSA, which goes into full effect with the start of the 2017-18 school year, will maintain the civil rights legacy of the underlying ESEA, which turned 50 last year.

Setting the Direction

The federal role in K-12 education has been steadily building in successive editions of the ESEA since the late 1980s.

The newest version retains the federal requirement for annual testing in reading and mathematics in grades 3-8 and once in high school. But it calls for states to revamp their accountability systems鈥攁nd they can significantly scale back the role those tests play in gauging school progress.

Under ESSA, states and districts will still have to transform their lowest-performing schools, but they will be able to choose their own interventions, as long as the strategies have some evidence to back them up. They鈥檒l also have to flag schools where historically overlooked groups of students, such as English-language learners, members of racial minorities, and students in special education, aren鈥檛 performing as well as their peers.

And, for the first time, states must include at least one factor that gets at school quality or students鈥� opportunity to learn鈥攕uch as access to advanced course work or a nurturing school climate鈥攚hen considering school performance.

They can also opt to get rid of teacher evaluations based in part on students鈥� standardized tests, which were required for states who wanted one of the Obama administration鈥檚 waivers from portions of the NCLB law.

And while they are required to adopt challenging academic standards, they can move away from the Common Core State Standards. The federal education secretary is explicitly barred from requiring or encouraging any particular set of standards.

For their part, states say they aren鈥檛 going to back down from ensuring equity for all students.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 see anything changing, except for it being better,鈥� Tony Evers, Wisconsin鈥檚 state superintendent, said shortly after ESSA was passed by Congress. 鈥淭here will be no backpedaling.鈥�

Different factions of the education community already are gearing up to help states and districts bring the new K-12 era forward鈥攖ypically with an eye to protecting their own interests at the same time.

Moving Forward

Teacher evaluation may be one area ripe for early and significant change. Thanks in part to the Obama administration鈥檚 NCLB waivers, 42 states and the District of Columbia have some sort of policy on teacher evaluation on the books, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality, a research and advocacy organization in Washington.

In many of the states, those performance reviews are enshrined in law, meaning it would take new legislation to undo them. But already states are mulling their options. New York, for instance, decided to put off using test scores in teacher evaluations for the next several years. It鈥檚 possible that Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, will make the shift permanent.

Teachers鈥� unions are likely to give states a hand with all this rethinking. The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers would love to see states move beyond teacher evaluations that rely heavily on student test scores.

鈥淭he way tests were used in teacher evaluation, ... it became lunacy,鈥� AFT President Randi Weingarten said last month.

Teachers鈥� unions aren鈥檛 the only groups gearing up to influence state policy in the ESSA era. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, for instance, will be helping its partners figure out how they can help local and state leaders keep the ESEA鈥檚 historic focus on equity for often-overlooked groups of students in this new version.

Under ESSA, states will no longer be able to rely solely on so-called 鈥渟upersubgroups,鈥� which allow them to combine a variety of different groups of students for accountability purposes. States liked the flexibility of supersubgroups, but civil rights advocates said they masked achievement gaps.

And states will have to measure English-language proficiency in their new systems鈥攕omething few if any states do now. They鈥檒l have to incorporate new factors that get at students鈥� opportunity to learn, and break those factors out by different groups of students, just as they do with test scores now.

The requirement for such breakdowns may influence the kinds of factors states end up picking, said Daria Hall, the interim vice president for government relations and communications at the Education Trust, which advocates for poor and minority students. For example, the legislation lists teacher engagement as a possible factor, but Hall is not sure how that would play out.

鈥淗ow do you disaggregate teacher engagement by groups of kids?鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not here to say right now that there is no possible way to make that a valid and reliable student-based indicator. But there are real questions about how to make that work.鈥�

But Donna Harris-Aiken, the director of education policy and practice at the National Education Association, said that all sorts of indicators, including bullying and school climate factors, are incorporated in the data collection of the Education Department鈥檚 office for civil rights.

鈥淲hat we鈥檝e learned over the past few years is that it doesn鈥檛 make sense to look at one or the other,鈥� she said, referring to results and inputs. 鈥淭he outcome piece isn鈥檛 coming off the table. [As for] the effort that districts and schools are making to鈥� work in support of students, 鈥渢hey鈥檒l now get credit for those efforts.鈥�

To be sure, there鈥檚 still plenty to puzzle over inside the Beltway. It鈥檚 unclear whether the language circumscribing the education secretary鈥檚 authority will make it more difficult politically鈥攐r even legally鈥攆or the department to take a hard line in regulating the law.

Michael Kirst, who worked on implementation of the first version of the ESEA during President Lyndon B. Johnson鈥檚 administration and is now the president of the California state board of education, wouldn鈥檛 mind if the federal department erred on the side of leeway for states.

鈥淚鈥檓 at the bottom looking up now and wanting to preserve flexibility,鈥� he said.

Loosening the Reins

The Golden State is one of just a handful that didn鈥檛 participate in the Obama administration鈥檚 NCLB waiver program. (It couldn鈥檛 get on board with then-U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan鈥檚 teacher-evaluation vision.)

Kirst is happy to be shrugging off the NCLB law for good, and especially to be gaining access to federal money that the state has had to set aside for the law鈥檚 mandatory interventions鈥攕chool choice and tutoring鈥攚hich he saw as largely ineffective.

But ESSA may not be a breeze to implement. Kirst is already scratching his head over one new requirement, borrowed from the Obama administration鈥檚 waiver initiative, that states turn around their bottom 5 percent of schools. In California, that could mean about 500 low performers鈥攁 tall order for the state education agency, in Kirst鈥檚 view.

For state officials, embracing ESSA represents 鈥渁 huge time and conceptual burden,鈥� Kirst said. 鈥淏ut it feels to be a step in the right direction, so at least you鈥檙e swimming with the tide.鈥�