Reforming and Updating No Child Left Behind (S. 1177)
Do you support or oppose this bill?
What is S. 1177?
(Updated September 24, 2018)
This bill was enacted on March 17, 2016
This bill would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), and rewrite the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education law passed with the last ESEA reauthorization. It would preserve what it deems, the "more successful" provisions of No Child Left Behind, while increasing state and local control of academic standards.
For context, NCLB came into effect in 2002, requiring states, school districts, and schools to ensure that all students were proficient in grade-level math and reading by 2014. Unfortunately, many states had trouble meeting their benchmarks on their way to attaining that goal, which led to 43 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Bureau of Indian Education, and eight California school districts to applying for waivers from NCLB.
States would be required to create accountability plans to prepare every students for reaching college or career readiness by the time they graduate high school. These plans allow each state to pick the best way to prepare students for these goals from kindergarten to senior year of high school. The accountability plans would have to meet minimum federal standards to ensure that all students and subgroups of students are included in the plan — but the federal government would be prohibited from choosing or approving state standards.
Standardized tests would still be used to measure success — including two reading and math tests annually for 3rd through 8th grades, and one in high school. Students would have to take a total of three science tests between 3rd and 12th grades. However, the federal government could no longer impose penalties on schools that perform poorly on those tests — instead allowing states to determine how to deal with test scores in their accountability systems.
In addition to test scores, accountability systems would be created using graduation rates, measures of college/workforce readiness, and English proficiency for English learners — among other state-chosen performance measures. States would get to set the weight of each measure in their system.
School districts would also require evidence-based interventions with state assistance for schools that are underperforming. The federal government would be barred from mandating, prescribing, or defining the specific steps school districts and states must take to improve schools.
States would be free to establish their own academic standards, and the federal government would be prohibited from mandating or incentivizing states to adopt or use any specific set of standards — including Common Core.
States would also be allowed — but not required — to develop and implement their own teacher evaluation systems. Schools would be able to use funds for induction programs for new teachers, ongoing professional development opportunities and new teacher recruitment.
Argument in favor
This bill gives states the power to create their own education standards and accountability systems for when schools fall short. States understand the nuances of their areas better than anyone else — they should decide how students are prepared for work or college.
Argument opposed
States have to play an important role in education, but the federal government needs to uphold standards that individual states can't be trusted to meet on their own. Federal standards create a baseline, and if states really want to improve their schools, they should be able to meet and even exceed them.
Impact
Students in elementary and secondary school and their families, state and local educational agencies, American universities, colleges, and other post-secondary education institutions, the U.S. job market, and the Department of Education.
Cost of S. 1177
The CBO estimates that implementing this bill would mean authorizing $23.9 billion in 2016 and $124.2 billion over the 2016-2020 period. Assuming that the funding is approved and allocated, the CBO estimates that discretionary costs for these changes would come up to $92.1 billion over the 2016-2020 period.
Additional Info
Of Note: As of 2011, there were 132,183 K-12 schools in the U.S., nearly 99,000 of which are public schools.
In-Depth: This bill was passed unanimously on a 22-0 vote by the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (a.k.a. the HELP Committee). The Committee’s Chairman, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), described the trajectory of the legislation’s reforms as trying to:
“Continue the law’s important measurements of academic progress of students but restore to states, school districts, classroom teachers and parents the responsibility for deciding what to do about improving student achievement.”
The ranking member of the HELP Committee — Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) — praised the committee’s initial version of the bill, saying:
“I believe that working through this process in a bipartisan way from the start is the best chance we’ve got at fixing this broken law. It helps make sure that all students get the opportunity to learn, no matter where they live, how they learn, or how much money their parents make.”
The Senate HELP Committee also published praise from a number of organizations for this legislation, including the National Education Association, the Business Roundtable, the National Governors Association, Teach for America, and the Partnership for 21st Century Learning.
Media:
- Cosponsoring Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) Press Release
- CBO Cost Estimate
-
Countable YouTube
- Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Press Release
- Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Summary
- International Business TImes
- USA Today
- U.S. News & World Report
Summary by Eric Revell
(Photo Credit: Flickr user Woodley Wonder Works)
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