This week, the full House and Senate will consider bills to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The Senate will begin debating and amending the Every Child Achieves Act (S. 1177), a bipartisan measure that was passed unanimously by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee in April. The House is scheduled to complete its work on the Student Success Act (H.R. 5), which has languished for months after debate originally was started on the House floor in February.
As we previously reported, the Senate’s Every Child Achieves Act is the product of bipartisan negotiations between HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA). Notably, the bill includes a provision, based on an amendment sponsored by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) during the committee markup, requiring the reporting of student attainment of CTE proficiencies on state and school report cards. This information is already collected under the Perkins Act, so this provision will provide parents, teacher and policymakers with information on student achievement in CTE without creating new reporting burdens. Other CTE-related issues that will likely be considered during the amendment process on the Senate floor include promoting teacher professional development focused on integrating academic and CTE content in the classroom, expanding college and career guidance programs, supporting career exploration in middle grades, and encouraging states to adopt college and career readiness performance indicators in their accountability systems.
In the House, the Student Success Act was very nearly passed by the full chamber in February, but was put on hold because the House leadership was unable to get sufficient support from Democrats and conservative member of the Republican caucus to approve the bill. It includes language similar to the Senate bill that would encourage states to incorporate information on student achievement on CTE proficiencies in their annual report card. Additionally, it would allow school districts to utilize funds to better integrate academics with CTE and work-based learning opportunities.
The partisan Student Success Act is expected to be offered along with several controversial amendments that may address portability in Title I funds, further rebuking the common core state standards, and providing states with the option to opt out of federal testing requirements. We will continue to provide updates on ESEA reauthorization in Congress on the CTE Policy Watch Blog.
Comments