ASCD JULY 16, 2013

Student Success Act Advances Toward House Floor

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to consider legislation that overhauls the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This marks the first time an NCLB rewrite has reached the full House or Senate floor since the law expired almost six years ago. The House education committee approved the new legislation, the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), on a party-line vote last month.The bill dramatically reduces the federal influence in education, particularly in the areas of school accountability and improvement. Key provisions of the bill include

Completely replacing NCLB’s adequate yearly progress (AYP) and school improvement requirements with state-determined accountability systems that annually measure student achievement, assess school performance, and include state-selected interventions for underperforming Title I schools.
Swapping NCLB’s highly qualified teacher requirements—which focus on education credentials and teacher licensure status—with locally designed teacher evaluation systems that incorporate student achievement data as one factor of teacher effectiveness and are used to make personnel decisions such as hiring and firing.
Providing districts with more flexibility in their use of federal Title I funds by allowing them to prioritize among programs for migrant students, neglected and delinquent students, English language learners, rural students, and American Indian students.
Eliminating 70 individual programs, many of which support well-rounded education, such as civics education, Arts in Education, Physical Education Program, and Elementary and Secondary School Counseling.

See the letter (PDF) ASCD sent to the House education committee as it considered the bill.Even with the proposed legislation’s reduced federal footprint, it’s unclear whether the Student Success Act will appease some of the more conservative members of the Republican caucus who have called for the abolishment of the U.S. Department of Education. On the other hand, House Democrats believe the bill’s loosened accountability requirements—particularly its lack of achievement goals for student subgroups—go too far, and they claim the legislation turns back the clock on providing all students with a high-quality and equitable education.

Meanwhile, the Senate education committee approved its own NCLB rewrite (PDF) in June. Senate leaders hope to bring that bill to a vote on the Senate floor this fall.

Don’t miss next week’s Capitol Connection, which will detail the House bill’s progress and implications for educators.