Congress returned from its month-long August recess last week with a busy agenda. Near the top of the agenda appears to be the renewal of the 5 1/2 –year-old No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. On August 28, the House Education and Labor Committee released a preliminary proposal to reauthorize Title I of NCLB, providing assistance to education agencies serving high numbers or percentages of underprivileged children. (View the text of this draft) or (View the summary of this draft). ACA joined other education groups in scrambling to read the 435-page draft bill and respond to the Committee by its September 5th deadline for submitting comments.
Both House and Senate members are trying to revamp the NCLB accountability system and increase support for struggling schools. The House Education Committee’s draft legislation would maintain requirements on states to assess students in reading and math in grades 3-8 and in high school, but would authorize states to use new methods of tracking progress toward subject proficiency goals required to be met by the end of the 2013-14 school year. The House Education Committee followed up last week’s release of the Title I draft legislation with similar drafts for the remaining parts of NCLB. (View the text of the Title II draft), (View the text of the Title III-Title XI draft), (View the summary of this draft). The additional draft provisions address a myriad of programs in the rest of the NCLB law, including teacher quality and professional development, Safe and Drug Free Schools, and the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program.
According to House staff, the Education Committee is scheduled to mark up a bill to renew NCLB the week of September 24, with a vote on the floor later in the fall. On the Senate side, lawmakers worked on an NCLB bill throughout the August recess and are aiming to have their bill win the Senate’s approval by the end of the year.
For more information on this issue, contact Chris Campbell, Assistant Director of Public Policy and Legislation, at (800) 347-6647 x-241, or by e-mail at ccampbell@counseling.org.