Senators to Introduce No Child Left Behind Amendments
WASHINGTON — After bipartisan talks to amend the No Child Left Behind Act stalled in January, four Republican senators introduced a series of education reforms to “fix” the law, including handing more power over to the states.
U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Richard Burr (R-NC), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) — all members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee — introduced the five-bill package on Sept. 15, according to Alexander’s press office.
“These bills are about getting Washington, D.C., out of the business of deciding which schools and teachers are succeeding and which are failing,” Alexander said. “America needs better state and local report cards, not a national school board.”
In March of this year, education secretary Arne Duncan told Congress that 82 percent of public schools could be labeled as failing this year under the current assessment system. The senators said the proposed amendments to the act would end the federal mandates through which Washington, D.C., decides which of the nation’s 100,000 public schools and teachers are succeeding or failing.
A statement from Alexander’s office said that “much has happened over the last ten years and it is time to transfer responsibility back to states and communities.”
Since No Child Left Behind was enacted in 2002, 44 states have adopted common core academic standards, two groups of states are developing common tests for those standards, and more than 40 states are developing common principles for holding schools accountable for student achievement, the statement said.
The senators’ legislation would maintain No Child Left Behind requirements for reporting student performance in reading, math and science. The new law would also provide states and school districts with greater flexibility to address what the senators said are major problems with the current law, leading to improved state accountability systems, teacher and principal professional development programs and consolidation of federal education programs to give state and local education leaders more freedom in meeting local needs, as well as expanding the number of charter schools.
“However, a one-size-fits-all approach designed in and mandated from Washington, D.C., does not work when it comes to education,” Burr said. “States and local communities are the best makers of educational decisions and must be empowered with the flexibility to design and fund locally-determined programs and initiatives that meet their varied and unique needs to provide an education that is in the best interest of their students.”
Isakson said the current law has allowed many children, including students from low-income families, to perform at higher levels in the areas of math and reading but added that it requires reauthorization to continue improving education.
Parts of the Elementary and Secondary Education Amendments Act of 2011 introduced by Isakson establishes a national “college- and career-readiness” goal, with accountability systems developed by states without interference by the federal government on state standards or assessments.
The act also eliminates the Washington-based Adequate Yearly Progress system and asks states to identify their lowest-performing 5 percent of schools. It also allows states to establish their own teacher licensure and certification requirements, and “dramatically simplifies the Title 1 State plans to reduce paperwork and federal interference,” according to the Sen. Alexander’s office.
Some states, like Colorado, have already adopted their own models to track student growth, while others are in the process of doing so. Nevada’s Office of Assessment, Program Accountability and Curriculum is in the process of applying for a new growth model that takes into account the distinction between student growth and student achievement for an improved student assessment system.
Bill reference numbers:
SB1571, SB1567, SB1568, SB1569 and SB1566