Special-education teacher chosen as ambassador

April Reisma, a special-education teacher at Benton Junior High School, was recently selected to be an ambassador for the Every Student Succeeds Act. Reisma is the 67th member of the national implementation team for ESSA, which also includes seven other Arkansas educators.
April Reisma, a special-education teacher at Benton Junior High School, was recently selected to be an ambassador for the Every Student Succeeds Act. Reisma is the 67th member of the national implementation team for ESSA, which also includes seven other Arkansas educators.

— A special-education teacher at Benton Junior High School has been chosen by the Arkansas Department of Education as an ambassador for the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA.

April Reisma, who teaches math and English, is the 67th member of the national implementation team for ESSA, which also includes seven other Arkansas educators, and that is “part of why I was asked to be an ambassador and why I was selected,” she said.

“The main thing it entails is disseminating information as it is gained by the state in regard to the new education law,” Reisma said.

Reisma will serve the Benton School District by informing co-workers and community leaders of the latest news.

“I have been traveling back and forth to Washington, D.C., and Atlanta since January, working on how to implement this law correctly and best for our students,” Reisma said.

On Dec. 10, 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act, ending the No Child Left Behind Act. ESSA eliminates the government’s role in education and replaces NCLB.

According to the website, ESSA “departs from NCLB by delivering the time and flexibility needed by schools, families, communities and educators to do what works for students.”

ESSA puts power into the hands of the educators by moving the decision-making to the teachers and fitting their individual needs.

“The people who are with children all day — they are the ones who know what children need,” Reisma said. “That’s why ESSA is empowering for an educator — to be able to give my students the education they need without wasting time on cumulative testing.”

Mainly, ESSA eliminates the Adequate Yearly Progress testing, which allowed the Department of Education to determine how every district in the country is doing, according to the test results.

Reisma said ESSA will allow everyone to get a voice and will be locally created.

“It will be based on what your students in your school need and not just what students in a school in New York need,” Reisma said.

For more on ESSA, visit www.getessaright.org.

“The biggest change [parents] will see is less testing,” Reisma said. “Teachers and educators have been lobbying for the pass.

“The [National Education Association] was very active to get members, to call, email and text its legislators, and [ESSA] passed with an overwhelming majority.”

This is Reisma’s fifth year at Benton Junior High School. She previously worked at Rivendell Behavorial Health Services of Arkansas in Little Rock. She also taught at the Little Rock Job Corps.

She graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 1992, and during her tenure at the Little Rock Job Corps, Reisma, who was born and raised in Pennsylvania, realized she had a love for special education.

So she earned her special-education degree online in 2012 from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

“ESSA needs to be fully implemented by next school year, so it is crunch time to make those decisions,” Reisma said.

Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.

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