On Friday, July 19, the House of Representatives passed “the Student Success Act,” which reforms and re-authorizes “the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA),” also known as “No Child Left Behind.” The law as it stands today has been due for reauthorization since 2007 and parties on both sides of the aisle agree that reform was needed to meet the needs and demands of today’s students. The bill passed the House on a mainly party line vote of 221 to 207.
Some highlights of the legislation include:
- Eliminating the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) metric established by No Child Left Behind and replacing it with state-determined accountability systems.
- Eliminating federally mandated actions and interventions currently required of poor performing schools and leaving it to states and districts.
- Repealing federal “highly qualified teacher” requirements and directing states and school districts to develop teacher evaluation systems based on an educator’s influence on student learning.
- Maintaining the requirement that states and school districts issue and distribute annual report cards, including disaggregated data on student achievement and high school graduation rates.
- Encouraging states to include the number of students attaining career and technical education proficiencies enrolled in public secondary schools in its annual state report card. This information is already required to be collected by the Perkins Act, and would simply streamline access to information for the public.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee passed Senator Tom Harkin’s (D-IA) version of ESEA reform and reauthorization titled, “Strengthening America’s Schools Act.” The approaches in Harkin’s bill and in the Student Success Act differ greatly. Not only does the full Senate need to vote and pass Harkin’s bill, but the House and Senate will then need to go to conference to iron out the ideological differences in approach. Additionally, the Obama Administration has issued a Statement of Administration Policy strongly opposing the House legislation.
All of this to say, there is a long road ahead for ESEA reform but we are grateful to members of both the House and Senate for prioritizing this critical issue.
