Congress could cut back on federally mandated student tests

Republicans in the U.S. Senate are considering changing the landmark No Child Left Behind education law in ways that could significantly curtail federally mandated student testing.

A Senate committee is working on a rewrite of the law, which required states to test how well students are doing in reading and math and ordered states to set annual targets in student proficiency. President George W. Bush signed it in 2002.

The main thrust of the law was to tie federal education dollars to how well students score on standardized tests.

Attempts to overhaul the law have been in limbo for years. But with Republicans now in charge of both chambers of Congress, GOP leaders hope education is one area where they can return power to state and local governments.

"While the federal government has a very special role in ensuring that our students do not experience discrimination based on who they are or what their disability might be, Congress is not a national school board," said Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the new chair of the new chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Alexander has introduced a bill in the Senate that would eliminate annual testing requirements in favor of what's called grade span testing, which Specht and other union leaders praise.

"I'm very intrigued by that because it would still measure how the system is doing, but it would be over time," said Denise Specht, president of Education Minnesota. "There would be one test, say, in elementary, one in middle school and one time in high school."

In addition to concerns about annual testing's effect on classroom time, unions have been concerned about efforts to link teachers' pay and promotions to test scores.

But U.S. Rep. John Kline, a Republican who represents Minnesota's 2nd District, wants a new education bill to preserve annual testing.

Kline is a close ally of House Speaker John Boehner, who previously chaired the Education Committee and helped craft the original No Child Left Behind law.

Some of the goals of testing in the original law should continue, Kline said.

"I think it's important that you get enough data that you can disaggregate it, that is you can peel it apart to make sure that you're not leaving behind certain groups," he said.

But Kline is critical of the part of the law that contained sanctions for schools that performed poorly. He said those sanctions were counterproductive.

"Some of the resistance to the testing has been, 'well, it's so high stakes, '" Kline said.

Both Kline and Alexander share one objective. Both want to scale back the role of the federal Department of Education.

The Obama Administration has used competitive grants and waivers from some of No Child Left Behind's requirements to encourage states to adopt Common Core curricular standards and make other changes.

Kline said it's urgent that the law be changed now in order to limit the federal government's power to push states to change their education policies.

"States are recognizing that they put a lot of effort and have to continue to put a lot of effort in to get waivers, temporary, conditional waivers," he said. "They don't want to do that, they want to see the law changed."

But not everyone wants to see big changes in the law.

Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius notes the state received a waiver from No Child Left Behind in 2012 that let the state put an alternative accountability system in place that ranks schools on multiple measures, not just test scores.

"The focus is all about testing because that's the controversial issue of the day, but really the focus ought to be on equity and adequate funding for students with disabilities and students who have been underperforming," she said.

Cassellius notes that Minnesota taxpayers foot the bill for approximately $600 million of unfunded federal special education mandates.

Kline said he hopes to find a solution for that problem as the legislative process continues. But he said there is little chance whatever bills pass the GOP-controlled House and Senate will contain more funding.