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1 [1] (December 7, 2015)

handle is hein.crs/govcdux0001 and id is 1 raw text is: .ri E$, December 7, 2015 The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and ESEA Reauthorization: Summary of Selected Key Issues Congress has actively considered reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) during the 114th Congress, passing comprehensive ESEA reauthorization bills in both the House (Student Success Act; H.R. 5) and the Senate (Every Child Achieves Act of 2015; S. 1177). Both chambers agreed to a conference to resolve their differences. On November 19, 2015, the conference committee agreed to file the conference report of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) by a vote of 39- 1. On December 2, 2015, the House agreed to the conference report based on a bipartisan vote of 359-64. The ESEA was last comprehensively reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB; P.L. 107-110). The ESSA would provide for a comprehensive reauthorization of the ESEA. This In Focus is intended to provide basic information about some of the issues that have drawn substantial congressional interest during the reauthorization process. Title I-A authorizes federal aid to local educational agencies (LEAs) and states for the education of disadvantaged students. The Title I-A grant program is the largest grant program in the ESEA. One notable change to the Title I-A formulas that the ESSA would make is to increase the set-aside for the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and Outlying Areas from 1.0% to 1.1%. This change would only be implemented if the total amount of funds available to make grants to states would be at least as much as the total amount of funds available to make grants to states in FY2016. While H.R. 5 would have allowed states to change the distribution of funds at the LEA and school level to provide funds to every LEA and public school with a child living in a family with income below the federal poverty line, commonly referred to as the portability of Title I-A funds, the ESSA would not include a provision providing for the portability of Title I-A funds. Similar to current law, under ESSA provisions, states receiving Title I-A funds would still be required to have academic standards in reading/language arts (hereafter referred to as reading), mathematics, and science. Unlike current law, states would be required to demonstrate that these standards are aligned with entrance requirements for credit-bearing coursework in the state's system of public higher education and relevant state career and technical education standards. States would continue to be required to administer assessments aligned with the standards in reading and mathematics in each of grades 3-8 and once during high school and to administer assessments aligned with the standards in science once in grades 3-5, grades 6-9, and grades 10-12. The ESSA would substantially change the accountability system that states would be required to implement to gauge student performance. Of note, states would have greater latitude in establishing systems for performance goals, measures of progress, and consequences that would be applied to schools for low performance. It is likely that a much smaller group of schools would be subject to accountability consequences under the ESSA than under current law. Under current law, states are required to develop annual measurable objectives (i.e., performance goals) for student performance on reading and mathematics assessments, leading to the statutory requirement that all students be proficient in reading and mathematics by the end of the 2013-2014 school year. These proficiency goals are used in the determination of adequate yearly progress (AYP). AYP is determined based on three components: (i) student academic achievement on the required state reading and mathematics assessments; (ii) 95% student participation rates in assessments by all students and for any subgroup for which data are disaggregated (economically disadvantaged students, students from major racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities, and students with limited English proficiency); and (iii) performance on another academic indicator, which must be graduation rates for high schools. Schools or LEAs meet AYP standards only if they meet the required threshold levels of performance on all three indicators for all students and each subgroup for which data are disaggregated, assuming a minimum group size is met. Schools and LEAs that fail to make AYP for two consecutive years or more are required to take a variety of actions (school improvement, corrective action, restructuring). The consequences are the same for each school regardless of the extent to which the school failed to make AYP in a given year, but the consequences need only be applied to a school receiving Title I-A funds. Under the ESSA, the AYP system would be replaced. States would be required to establish long-term goals, including measures of interim progress toward those goals, for performance on the reading and mathematics assessments, high school graduation rates, and the percentage of English learners achieving English language proficiency. States would then be required to annually measure the performance of all students and each subgroup of students in schools based on the aforementioned measures and at least one other measure for elementary and secondary schools that are not high schools and at least one indicator of school quality or student success. .O 'T p\w -- , gn'a', goo mppm qq\ M , q 'M I 11LIANJILiM,

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