Finally, Congress to start debate on No Child Left Behind rewrite
Congress is finally supposed to be turning its attention to the No Child Left Behind law, the education law that passed in the administration of president George W. Bush, and was supposed to be rewritten in 2007. There are bills in both the House and Senate, both of which would make significant changes to education policy today, as explained in this post. It was written by Monty Neill, executive director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, known as FairTest, a nonprofit organization that works to end the misuses of standardized testing and to ensure that evaluation of students, educators and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally sound.
By Monty Neill
This week Congress takes up overhaul of “No Child Left Behind,” the widely despised federal law that brought a tsunami of testing down on public schools. Beginning Tuesday, July 7, the U.S. Senate is scheduled to debate reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, now named No Child Left Behind, NCLB). The House is expected to take up its own proposal (H.R. 5) later this month.
Overall, the Senate’s “Every Child Achieves Act” (ECAA, S. 1117) makes significant assessment reform progress. It largely returns control over accountability to the states. It allows states to choose whether to use student test scores to judge teachers. It provides some flexibility in assessment. However, the Senate proposal fails to scale back mandated testing – pending a vote on an amendment that would allow states to test once each in elementary, middle and high school.
Here are some specifics:
The Senate bill and the House bill remove the destructive NCLB mandate that every school make “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) on student test scores or face escalating sanctions, such as replacing staff or being closed down. The Senate bill requires states to intervene in an unspecified number of schools that are “low performing.” Each state would design its own accountability system, which would include student test scores, graduation rates, and at least one other indicator selected by the state. States would decide how much weight to assign each component and the balance between assistance and sanctions.
Unfortunately, ECAA and the House bill continue the harmful NCLB mandate requiring states to test every year in grades 3-8 and once in 10-12 in reading Finally, Congress to start debate on No Child Left Behind rewrite - The Washington Post: