After years of national debate and protest over the No Child Left Behind law, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to significantly scale back the federal government's role in U.S. public schools.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which passed in a 359 to 64 vote on Dec. 2, would shift authority in the public school system from the federal government to local school districts, reports The Miami Herald. As a result, states will have power 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.

The bill will now head to the Senate for a vote. If passed by Congress and signed into law, it would largely dismantle the federal accountability system created by No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which measured schools' academic progress and teacher performances 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

On the bright side, NCLB offered insight about how black and Latino students across the country are being affected by the achievement gap. Still, it did not provide solutions on how to help historically disadvantaged students, reports The Hill. Despite the revisions in 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.

Although some Republicans complained that the bipartisan bill did not go far enough to remove the federal role from classrooms, it was praised by the Obama administration, many GOP officials and teachers' unions.

"Today, we turn the page on the failed status quo and turn over to our nation's parents and our state and local leaders the authority, flexibility and certainty they need to deliver children an excellent education," said Republican Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, according to The Associated Press.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest also released a statement after the vote, saying the bill would "reduce over-testing and one-size-fits-all federal mandates."

Meanwhile, National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen García said, "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."