Abigail Neeley

17 April 2022

SOWK 222

Public Education Project

For my public education project, I designed an infographic on the Every Student

Succeeds Act (ESSA). I felt that an infographic would facilitate public learning because

infographics are meant to draw the reader in and teach people facts about the topic without

giving too much information. Infographics are also really effective with facilitating public

learning because they are quick to read and can easily be shared with other people. Sometimes

people are not inclined to read entire articles on certain topics, so this makes infographics more

appealing because of the ability to retain important information quickly. For my infographic, I

added several different diagrams along with pictures and text to make it easy to read and also

intriguing to the audience.

From this infographic, there were several core concepts from the class that were

mentioned including rights to education, racism, redlining, civil rights, and people with

disabilities. The Every Student Succeeds Act in its entirety focused on a right to equal and fair

education for all students, but there were also several other core concepts within the right to

education. Within my research about The Every Student Succeeds Act, I noticed that several of

the schools and districts were targeted for more needing more help than others. These schools

needed extra help due to redlining in the area, which then leads to schools receiving teachers that

are inexperienced or uneducated due to lack of funding (Jefferson 2019). The Every Student

Succeeds Act also focused a great deal on students with disabilities who were, at the time, not

getting the resources that they needed to succeed. The act removed the requirement that all
special education teachers have to be certified in two different areas: special education as well as

another core topic. Now, because of ESSA, teachers only need to be certified in special

education and receive training on other core topics.

The Every Student Succeeds Act is important because it provides a quality and equal

education for all students, regardless of race, ethnicity, or ability. The act also gave states much

more power and say over what they want to see happen in their schools and as well as how to

best help their students and tend to their needs (Lee 2020). Some of the responsibilities that the

states now have due to the act include academic standards, testing, goals, and plans for

improving schools that are struggling. The ESSA replaced the No Child Left Behind Act, and

this act inflicted harsh penalties on teachers and schools if their students did not meet

achievement standards. With the Every Student Succeeds Act, schools and school districts in

need of more funding are receiving the resources and money that they need from the

government, and the government now has more efficient programs in selecting school districts

that need these resources (Lee 2020).

Through this project’s development, I learned a lot about the structure of schools in

relationship to their respective states, how redlining impacts a school’s success, and what

regulations for schools helping student achieve success was like in the past and how it has

improved. I also learned a lot about how students with disabilities were mistreated in the past

with respect to how they were taught and what was expected of them (Jefferson 2019). With the

Every Student Succeeds Act, students with disabilities are receiving the resources that they need

to succeed including levels of success that are different for each individual, access to

standardized testing, and other resources that they had previously not had access to.
 Works Cited

Lee, A. (2020). What Is the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)? Understood.

https://www.understood.org/en/articles/every-student-succeeds-act-essa-what-you-need-

to-know

Jefferson, R. (2019). Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) | U.S. Department of Education. U.S.

Department of Education. https://www.ed.gov/essa?src=rn