Fact Sheet for the Improving Student Testing Act of 2007
September 17, 2007
U.S. Senator Russ Feingold will be introducing
the Improving Student Testing Act of 2007, a bill that will
make changes to the No Child Left Behind Act to improve the
quality of education assessments used in our schools and support
innovative state and local school reform efforts. The legislation
is fully paid for through offsets.
Feingold’s legislation contains the following provisions:
- Reforming NCLB’s Focus on High Stakes Testing – Encourages
states and local districts to move away from using high
stakes standardized testing as the primary measurement of
academic achievement in school accountability decisions.
The bill provides competitive grant funds for states and
local districts encouraging the creation of higher-quality,
authentic measurements of student performance. The legislation
also provides states and local districts with flexibility
to use high-quality multiple measures of assessment in state
testing and accountability systems.
- Reforming Testing Mandates – Promotes state and local
control over decisions affecting children’s day-to-day classroom
experiences, including the frequency and use of high-stakes
standardized testing. The bill reforms the federal testing
mandate to allow annual assessments at least once in grades
3-5, 6-9, and 10-12, instead of the current requirement
for annual testing in grades 3-8 and once in high school.
- Revising the One-Size-Fits All Adequate Yearly Progress
Model – Provides flexibility for states to develop alternative
accountability models. One example of such models includes
growth models, which allow schools to better ensure that each
student, regardless of his or her current academic level,
continues to make academic progress.
- Addressing the 2014 Deadline – Reforms the 2014 deadline
by putting in place a funding trigger that waives the 2014
deadline for any year that Congress does not fully fund Title
I, Part A.
- Improving the Department of Education’s Peer Review Process
– Makes changes to the Department’s peer review process to
ensure that states have the ability to interact directly with
peer review teams. The bill also encourages more consistent
decision-making from state to state during the federal peer
review process of state testing and accountability systems
- Disaggregating Graduation Rates – Requires states to disaggregate
graduation rates by NCLB’s student subgroups, including economically
disadvantaged students, students from major racial and ethnic
groups, students with disabilities, and students with limited
English proficiency.
- Encouraging Capacity Building – Creates a competitive and
flexible grant program to provide funds for states and local
districts to help build their infrastructure and capacity.
Increased access to federal funding for capacity building
will help encourage states to develop better assessment and
accountability systems including using multiple measures of
assessment and growth models.
- Improving Privacy Protections – Includes important measures
to help ensure the privacy of personal information contained
in state education data systems.
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