Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization (ESEA)

Background

The No Child Left Behind Act (formerly known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act - ESEA) was passed in 2001 and is also known as “NCLB”. This legislation funds a number of federal programs aiming at improving the performance of U.S. schools by increasing the standards of accountability for states, school districts, and schools, as well as providing parents more flexibility in choosing which schools their children will attend. It also promotes an increased focus on reading and math.

The intention of NCLB is to use a standards-based education reform approach - setting high standards and establishing measurable goals – that lead to improved individual outcomes in education. The Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills to be given to all students in certain grades, if those states are to receive federal funding for schools. The Act does not assert a national achievement standard; standards are set by each individual state. 

In 2007, the Senate appeared as if they would re-authorize this Act, addressing some of the concerns of the Act and with a consideration of including science as part of the Annually Yearly Progress (AYP) Report, setting up science as an equal partner with math and reading. This action did not occur.

Status/Update Summer 2011

Committees in both the House and the Senate have been working toward introducing bills for the re-authorization. This action would allow the committees and various stakeholders to begin introducing changes to the Act that better reflect current economic and education environments as well as address some of the problems realized over the past 10 years of implementing the Act.

Status/Update September, 2011

Committees in both the House and the Senate have been working toward introducing bills for the re-authorization. Just before the end of the 2011 Summer House session, Reps. Judy Biggert (R-IL) and Rush Holt (D-NJ), introduced a bi-partisan House resolution (H. Res. 378), calling for “strong consideration” of the role of science achievement in the ESEA/NCLB school accountability system. The STEM Education Coalition members worked for weeks with staffers for Biggert and Holt to craft the resolutionand get it introduced as a vehicle for making the case for the inclusion of science alongside math and reading as core elements of the ESEA accountability system. HOSP and the STEM Education Coalition invites you to support this resolution.

HOSP Position

• Science as the third leg of the instructional core – on par with math and reading in both legislative language and in terms of funding
• Hands-on and inquiry-based approaches to instruction as part of the core of “Making Science Count”
• Assessments (testing) that align with a hands-on, inquiry-based approach
• States defining what STEM means to them in relation to their work force development needs