After more than a decade of national debate and public backlash over the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law, President Barack Obama signed a bill on Thursday that drastically scales back the federal government's role in the U.S. public school system.

"Members of Congress from both parties have come together to revise our national education law ... a Christmas miracle, a bipartisan bill signing right here," said the president while signing the legislation at an event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, reports CBS News.

Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into law after the bill was approved by both branches of Congress earlier this month. As a result, states and local school districts will have more authority to decide how to use students' test performance in assessing teachers and schools. However, the bill maintains the testing requirement that many parents and teachers have been protesting for years.

Obama praised the ESSA as a law that focuses on boosting the high school graduation rate while preparing students for college and the workforce.

"It builds on the reforms that have helped us make so much progress already, holding to high standards for teaching and learning, empowering states and school districts to develop their own strategies for improvement, dedicating our resources to our most vulnerable children," said Obama, explaining that it replaces the "one-size-fits-all" approach from the NCLB law.

Under NCLB, schools' academic progress and teacher performances were measured based on their students standardized testing scores. Parents and teachers, however, complained that the law forced educators to "teach to the test" and that the testing had become a burden on children.

Despite the revisions to NCLB, children in grades 3 through 8 will still be required to take an annual reading and math test. High school students would have to take one test as well. The schools would also be mandated to make those test scores public, while noting students' races.

National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García applauded ESSA, saying, "For the first time since No Child Left Behind was enacted nearly 14 years ago, ESSA empowers educators as trusted professionals to make school and classroom decisions while keeping the focus on students most in need," according to The Associated Press.