A bill that would give states and local school districts more control over assessing the performance of schools, teachers, and students, is headed for the Senate.

On Wednesday the House narrowly passed a Republican-led measure known as the Student Success Act, which replaces the expired No Child Left Behind Act and allows greater local control of public schools.Congressman Lou Barletta, District 11, issued a statement Wednesday about HR 5, the Student Success Act.The bill includes a Barletta amendment to encourage after-school programs, such as the successful SHINE program he has helped foster in Carbon County and expand to Luzerne County."While the No Child Left Behind Act was well-intentioned, its one-size-fits-all approach has hampered innovation and taken too much control away from states," Barletta said.He said the Student Success Act "places greater control in the hands of schools, teachers, and parents. It reduces the federal footprint in the classroom and gets more educational decisions to a place where they do the most good: at the local level."Several area superintendents weighed in on how No Child Left Behind has affected their districts, and whether it should be changed.Panther Valley School District Superintendent Dennis Kergick said he believes something needs to be done."I think changes are due," Kergick said. "Trying to assess all students across the board is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, especially the poorer school districts."Kergick added, "I totally agree that there should be some sort of assessment to see how schools are doing, that's without question. It's not a level playing field."Jim Thorpe Area School District Superintendent Brian Gasper said, "Although NCLB's original goal of adding accountability was a step in the right direction, the scope of the law shifted to a focus on standardized testing.""Although I am all for accountability, changes to the law must be made to shift the focus to the successes of our students and for states to regain control of their accountability systems from federal control," Gasper said. "A major change should include accommodations for special needs, minority and poor students and move away from a one-size-fits-all mentality."Palmerton Area School District Superintendent Scot Engler said regardless of whether the education law is changed or not, the district's stance remains the same."We are here to help every child regardless of ability levels, circumstance," Engler said.Lehighton Area School District Superintendent Jonathan J. Cleaver offered his viewpoint."There's a lot of testing requirements for the students that plays a role," Cleaver said. "It does take a lot of time and effort away from the general instruction for all the students."Tamaqua Area School District Superintendent Carol Makuta said it's important to be committed to "equity in education.""Hopefully, philosophically, everyone is on the same page for underperforming schools and struggling students," Makuta said.No Child Left Behind, which expired in 2007, mandated annual testing in reading and math for students in grades three to eight and again in high school.Schools had to show student growth or face consequences. But critics complained the law was rigid, overly ambitious and punitive, and there was too much testing.Anticipating that No Child's goal that all students should be able to read and do math at grade level by 2014 could not be met, the Obama administration has been granting states waivers around some of the law's more stringent requirements. In return, schools agreed to certain conditions, like using college- and career-ready standards such as Common Core.The Associated Presscontributed to this report.