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[00:00.16]States and local communities in the United States 
[00:03.88]gained more control over education standards and testing last week.
[00:09.64]U.S. President Barack Obama 
[00:12.40]signed the education reforms into law last week.
[00:16.88]"After more than 10 years, 
[00:19.36]members of Congress from both parties have come together 
[00:22.88]to revise our national education law," Obama said. 
[00:27.60]"This law focuses on a national goal of ensuring that all of our students 
[00:32.88]graduate prepared for college and future careers."
[00:37.68]The new education reform law 
[00:40.20]urges the 50 state governments 
[00:42.44]to limit how many and how often students take tests. 
[00:47.47]The law limits the high-stakes nature of the testing 
[00:50.76]for underperforming schools. 
[00:53.04]And the national government will not be able 
[00:55.88]to tell states and communities 
[00:58.04]how to evaluate schools and teacher performance.
[01:02.60]But states and schools must still give reading 
[01:06.29]and math exams in grades three through eight, and in high school. 
[01:11.40]The states will have more authority 
[01:14.36]in setting standards for the tests.
[01:17.76]Congress passed the measure easily. 
[01:20.80]Republicans and Democrats supported it.
[01:24.64]The new law replaces the No Child Left Behind measure 
[01:28.68]approved in 2002. 
[01:31.23]It called for extensive testing and standards 
[01:34.88]set by the national government. 
[01:37.08]Parents, teachers and lawmakers found that policy unworkable. 
[01:42.92]They said it gave Washington bureaucrats 
[01:46.08]too much control over the country's 100,000 public schools.
[01:51.88]"This bill makes long overdue fixes to the last education law. 
[01:57.96]It replaces a one-size-fits-all approach to reform," Obama said. 
[02:04.32]Republican Senator Lamar Alexander 
[02:07.28]is one of the measure's chief authors. 
[02:10.28]He said, "This new law will result in fewer and better tests 
[02:15.44]because states and classroom teachers 
[02:17.91]will be deciding what to do about the results of the tests." 
[02:23.00]The law's other key sponsor is Democratic Senator Patty Murray. 
[02:28.48]She said the new focus will be on early childhood education. 
[02:34.28]She added that minority and poor children will benefit, 
[02:38.80]and get a better start in their earliest years of school.
[02:43.92] I'm Jonathan Evans.