Dive Brief:
- The chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, Rep. John Kline (R-MN), says he supports the current testing schedule of No Child Left Behind. Under that law, students in grades three through eight are tested annually and once more in high school.
- Kline says yearly assessments help families and lawmakers better understand where students, schools, and demographics stand.
- Kline expects that, by the end of February, the House will debate a bill he sponsored that requires yearly testing but gives states more power when it comes to determining which schools are failing. A similar bill passed in 2013.
Dive Insight:
As Congress begins debating revisions to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (which NCLB is an extension of), high-stakes testing has become a massive point of contention. Some argue it has been given far too much focus, while those like Kline argue that it can provide meaningful check-ins on student progress. In agreement with Kline is the Obama administration, various congressional democrats, and a slew of civil rights organizations.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, who heads that chamber's education committee and has spearheaded the move toward ESEA re-authorization, says he is open to dialog. In his draft of the re-authorization bill, he detailed two potential directions that the nation could go in. One option gives states agency to decide how and when they want to test students without requiring those ideas to be submitted to the U.S. secretary of education for approval. The other would maintain the status quo of having states test annually in grades three through eight and once during high school.
Still, there is pushback. Reps. Chris Gibson (R-NY) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) announced on Wednesday that they plan to introduce a bill that gets rid of yearly testing, instead requiring it only once in elementary school, once in middle school, and once in high school.