WASHINGTON (AP) – The Republican chairman of the House Education Committee on Thursday threw his support behind testing students annually under the federal No Child Left Behind education law.
As Congress seeks to update the President George W. Bush-era law, debate has centered on whether the federal government should continue to order states to test all students in reading and math in grades three to eight and again in high school. Some educators and parents say that has created a high-stakes testing environment in schools, adding that testing policy should be left up to states and districts.
Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said he believes the annual results help parents and policymakers know where students stand – an important way to track student learning.
“I just think it’s important that we keep enough meaningful data that we can make sure that we’re not leaving kids, segments, behind,” he said at an American Enterprise Institute forum.
Kline said he expects that the House will debate in late February a bill similar to one it passed in 2013. That bill, which he sponsored, would have kept the testing mandate but would have limited the federal government’s role in deciding which schools are failing and how to fix them. It had no Democratic support and received a veto threat from President Barack Obama.
The Obama administration and many congressional Democrats, as well as civil rights groups, have advocated for a strong federal role to ensure that states and districts are helping historically underserved kids.
Kline said the test results provide a “report card.”
“You need some information. You need a report card, but you don’t need the federal government deciding what you need to do to fix your school,” Kline said.
On Wednesday, Reps. Chris Gibson, R-N.Y., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., announced the reintroduction of a bill that would replace the annual mandate with a requirement for testing just once each in elementary, middle and high school.
On the Senate side, Sen. Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions, has said he’s open to discussion over whether the testing mandate should remain. He has said he wants to get a bill to the Senate floor in late February.
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