What Is ESSA? The Every Student Succeeds Act Explained for English Language Teachers

What Is ESSA?

ESSA is the Every Student Succeeds Act, the United States federal education law signed on 10 December 2015. It reauthorised the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and replaced No Child Left Behind. It requires every state to test English learners’ language proficiency each year and to report their progress.

If you teach English, ESSA matters for one specific reason: it is the law that makes English language proficiency a measured, reported part of how American schools are judged. Every annual English test an emergent bilingual student sits in a US public school traces back to it, and so does the federal money that pays for the programme teaching them.

This page explains what the Act is, what it requires, how it defines an English learner, and where it stops. It is part of our TEFL qualifications and terminology reference.

ESSA, ESEA and NCLB: Three Names for One Chain of Law

The three acronyms confuse people constantly, and they are not three competing laws. They are one law at three moments in its life.

• ESEA — the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. This is the underlying statute and it has never gone away.
• NCLB — No Child Left Behind, the 2002 reauthorisation of ESEA.
• ESSA — the Every Student Succeeds Act, the 2015 reauthorisation, which is what is in force now.

This is why federal documents say “the ESEA, as amended by ESSA” rather than simply “ESSA”. The Department of Education describes ESEA as “the nation’s national education law” and says NCLB’s requirements had become “increasingly unworkable for schools and educators”, which is the reason ESSA was passed.

One further distinction worth drawing, because the abbreviations look alike: ESSA is not ESA. An ESA, in American school-funding debates, is an Education Savings Account — a state voucher mechanism, nothing to do with this federal statute.

ESSA at a Glance

Canonical data block. All figures below were read from official US government sources and checked on 15 October 2026.

Item	Detail	Source
Full name	Every Student Succeeds Act	US Department of Education
Signed into law	10 December 2015	US Department of Education
What it reauthorises	Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA)	US Department of Education
What it replaced	No Child Left Behind, enacted 2002	US Department of Education
Where English learners are defined	ESEA section 8101(20)	NCELA, US Department of Education
English learner funding stream	Title III, Part A — English Language Acquisition State Grants	US Department of Education
Title III, Part A appropriation	$890 million in each of fiscal years 2023, 2024 and 2025	US Department of Education programme page
Accountability indicators required	Five, including progress in achieving English language proficiency	State education agency accountability documentation
State plans	Each state submitted a Consolidated State Plan in 2017	US Department of Education

How to cite this page: The TEFL Institute, “What Is ESSA? The Every Student Succeeds Act Explained for English Language Teachers”, https://teflinstitute.com/blog/what-is-essa/, data checked 15 October 2026. Primary sources are linked in full at the foot of this article; cite them directly where the exact statutory wording matters.

What ESSA Requires Every State to Do

ESSA works by condition rather than command. A state that accepts federal Title I funding takes on a set of obligations: adopt academic standards, assess against them, and run an accountability system that identifies schools needing support.

Crucially for anyone in English language teaching, states must also adopt English language proficiency standards covering four domains — listening, speaking, reading and writing — aligned to the state’s academic content standards.

The Five Accountability Indicators

Each state’s accountability system must be built on a set of indicators. They are:

1. Student proficiency on reading/language arts and mathematics assessments.
2. A measure of student growth, or another indicator allowing meaningful differentiation, for schools that are not high schools.
3. Graduation rates, for high schools.
4. Progress in achieving English language proficiency by English learners, in all public schools.
5. At least one further indicator of school quality or student success.

The fourth is the one that changed English language teaching in American schools.

The English Language Proficiency Indicator

Before ESSA, English learner progress was tracked in a separate accountability track that applied mainly to districts receiving Title III money. ESSA folded it into the main school accountability system, so every public school is now measured on how its English learners are progressing toward proficiency.

Two consequences follow for teachers. First, the annual English language proficiency assessment is compulsory for every English learner in kindergarten through grade 12, in all four domains, every year. Second, scores cannot be “banked”: a student who was proficient in listening last year is still assessed in listening this year.

Each state sets its own timeline and its own definition of adequate progress, which is why two neighbouring states can treat identical scores differently.

How ESSA Defines an English Learner

The definition sits in section 8101(20) of the ESEA as amended. In plain terms, an English learner is a person who:

• is aged 3 through 21;
• is enrolled, or preparing to enrol, in an elementary or secondary school;
• was not born in the United States or whose native language is not English — or is a Native American, Alaska Native or native resident of the outlying areas from an environment where another language has significantly affected their English proficiency — or is migratory from an environment where another language is dominant; and
• has difficulties speaking, reading, writing or understanding English sufficient to deny them the ability to meet state academic standards, to succeed in English-medium classrooms, or to participate fully in society.

Note the terminology drift. Federal statute says English learner; the pre-ESSA term was limited English proficient, which survives in older documents and in census usage — we cover that history in our guide to what LEP stands for. Many districts now prefer multilingual learner or emergent bilingual, and the Department’s own Office of English Language Acquisition uses those interchangeably with the statutory term.

Title III: The Funding Behind English Learner Programmes

Title III, Part A of the ESEA — also cited as the English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement Act — is the money. It is a formula grant, not a competitive one.

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• Only state education agencies may apply and receive funds directly.
• Allocations are calculated on each state’s number of English learner and immigrant children and youth.
• States keep a small share for state-level activities and subgrant the rest to school districts and consortia.
• Funds must supplement, not supplant the services English learners are already owed under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act 1974.

That last rule is the one most often misunderstood. Title III money cannot be used to pay for a district’s baseline civil-rights obligations to English learners; it pays for provision on top of them.

ESSA also changed what subgrantees must do with the money. Where districts previously had two required activities — professional development and running a language instruction educational programme — they now have a third: other effective activities that enhance or supplement those programmes, which must include parent, family and community engagement.

ESSA Is Why TELPAS, WIDA ACCESS and ELPAC Exist

States choose their own English language proficiency test, but they must have one, it must be annual, and it must align with the state’s proficiency standards. That single requirement produced the alphabet of state assessments English teachers in the US encounter:

• WIDA ACCESS — used by a large consortium of states.
• TELPAS — the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System. We explain it in detail in our guide to TELPAS.
• ELPAC — California’s equivalent.

They look like separate systems. They are separate answers to the same federal requirement.

What ESSA Means If You Hold a TEFL Certificate

This boundary is worth stating plainly, because test-preparation sites rarely do.

ESSA governs United States public schools. Teaching in one requires certification from that state, and a TEFL certificate is not a route to it and substitutes for no state licensing examination. A Level 5 TEFL qualification is a professional teaching credential for English as a foreign language — typically used abroad or online — and it belongs to a different system entirely.

Where ESSA is genuinely useful to a TEFL-qualified teacher is as vocabulary and context. If you work with American schools, apply to an international school that follows US practice, tutor emergent bilingual students, or simply want to read an American job advert without guessing, knowing what Title III pays for and what the proficiency indicator measures is practical knowledge.

What This Page Does Not Tell You

Deliberately omitted, because the figures are state-specific, change annually, or could not be sourced to an official publication on the check date:

• Passing scores and proficiency cut scores. Each state sets its own on its own test. There is no national ESSA cut score.
• Your state’s definition of adequate progress. ESSA requires a state-determined timeline; it does not set one.
• District-level Title III allocations. These flow through state agencies and vary year to year.
• Current-year appropriations. The figure in the data block above covers fiscal years 2023 to 2025 as published; later years should be checked against the programme page directly.
• Reclassification criteria for exiting English learner status, which are set by states and districts.

For any of these, go to your state education agency, not to a third-party summary.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does ESSA stand for?

ESSA stands for the Every Student Succeeds Act. It is the United States federal law that governs public elementary and secondary education, signed on 10 December 2015.

Is ESSA the same as ESEA?

No. ESEA is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the underlying law. ESSA is the 2015 reauthorisation of it. When officials write “the ESEA, as amended by ESSA”, they mean the same body of law as it currently stands.

What replaced No Child Left Behind?

ESSA replaced No Child Left Behind, which was enacted in 2002. The Department of Education says NCLB’s requirements had become “increasingly unworkable for schools and educators”.

Does ESSA require English learners to be tested every year?

Yes. Under ESSA each state must give an annual English language proficiency assessment to every English learner, covering listening, speaking, reading and writing. Progress toward English language proficiency is also one of the indicators in each state’s school accountability system.

What is Title III under ESSA?

Title III, Part A is the English Language Acquisition State Grants programme. Funds go to state education agencies on a formula based on the number of English learner and immigrant students, and the states subgrant most of it to school districts.

Does a TEFL certificate qualify me to teach under ESSA?

No. ESSA governs United States public schools, and teaching in one requires state certification. A TEFL certificate is a qualification for teaching English as a foreign language, usually abroad or online, and it is not a route to a US state teaching licence.

Official Sources

• US Department of Education — Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
• US Department of Education — English Language Acquisition State Grants, Title III, Part A
• NCELA — Title III State Formula Grants
• NCELA — Title III Grants FAQ

All four sources were opened and verified on 15 October 2026.

Continue in this reference series: TEFL Qualifications and Terminology Explained · What Is TELPAS? · What Does LEP Stand For?