Every Child Achieves Act?

In 1965, it was called  the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and in 2002, it was renewed with the major changes that made it the No Child Left Behind Act. 

Now the"Every Child Achieves Act of 2015" seems to have a shot at becoming law, renewing the ESEA and changing the NCLB requirements.  Last week, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) and Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash)  proposed a bipartisan approach.  Politics K-12 reports that amendments are due today for the committee markup that begins tomorrow.

If the current bill became law without changes, states would still be required to:

• set academic standards
• assess reading and math once per grade in grades 3-8 and once in high school
• assess science three times between grade 3 and grade 12.
• report assessment results broken out by student subgroups
• establish accountability rules that make use of those assessment results and graduation rates
• identify low-performing schools

However, if the current bill became law without changes, states would be able to:

• pilot innovative assessment systems in school districts
• use additional indicators of student and school performance in accountability calculations (Politics K-12's example of a possible addition is "percent of students taking AP tests")
• design accountability rules with considerably more flexibility, including an absence of federal requirements about how many schools to identify as low-performing.

In the nature of the legislative process, the current bill almost certainly will see changes, and it may end up never becoming law.  Still, after years and years of failed proposals for ESEA reauthorization, this bipartisan draft may have more potential than most.

Also in the nature of the legislative process, the current bill has many more parts, and I've settled for a few main issues.  You can read the committee summary here, the Politics K-12 summary here, or the full text of the bill here. 

--Posted by Susan Perkins Weston