The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) changed federal teacher policy in a number of important ways. This article uses No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Race to the Top, NCLB waivers, and ESSA to detail these shifts. Since ESSA is in the early phase of implementation, we analyze the policy through the lens of previous empirical work as a way of anticipating how the various components of the law may function. The goal is to understand how the policy differs from previous federal efforts, detail the theory of action of teacher policy under ESSA, and provide concrete ways for educational leaders to implement the law. We find that ESSA focuses on the distribution of highly effective teachers and allows states more autonomy to define teacher quality.
