The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee completed consideration of a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA) after a 12-hour session and plenty of maneuvering on both sides of the political aisle. After 23 amendments were accepted during the two-day markup, the law’s rewrite was approved on a bipartisan basis. NAESP applauds the committee’s work on the bill, which includes some of the Association’s hard-fought provisions.

Those provisions include recognition and support of professional development exclusively for principals, strengthening of the alignment of early childhood programs with early elementary grades, and providing joint professional development between early childhood educators and principals.

The bill cleared by a vote of 15 to 7 with the support of Republicans Mike Enzi (WY), Lamar Alexander (TN), and Mark Kirk (IL); Independent Bernie Sanders (VT); and every Democratic committee member. See the 23 amendments here.

An additional committee hearing will be held on Nov. 8 at the request of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). Committee leadership plans to bring the bill to the Senate floor before Thanksgiving.

Overall, the bill focuses federal attention on schools performing it the bottom 5 percent in a state, including high schools with low graduation rates. States must establish college- and career-standards, and continue to disaggregate data for high-poverty and minority students. The highest-achieving schools are also recognized and provided with incentives to partner with low-achieving schools to provide support and technical assistance with improvement strategies.

As passed, the legislation permits state-based accountability systems to assess student progress using growth models to measure academic achievement in addition to standardized test, and to use tests on multiple measures that quantify higher order skills (such as critical problem-solving). States must continue to assess students on an annual basis in math and reading in grades 3 through 8 and once during high school.

These changes reflect NAESP’s strong advocacy to eliminate the one-size-fits-all AYP requirement in No Child Left Behind and its overreliance on standardized test scores. The bill also includes increased flexibility in testing for English language learners and students with special needs.

Notably, the ESEA rewrite moved principal evaluation requirements to a competitive program called the Teacher Incentive Fund, rather than requiring states and local districts to create or redesign evaluation systems.

Not all the news is good, however. NAESP continues to fight against the so-called "school-improvement models" for low-performing schools that require the arbitrary dismissal of the principal. The bill requires districts to implement one of six outlined school improvement models in the lowest 5 percent of the schools. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) successfully passed an amendment during the committee markup allowing LEAs to develop an alternative turnaround strategy of their choice for the lowest performing schools, which must get the Secretary of Education's approval. The original bill includes a provision allowing states to apply for a waiver from having to fire the principal, which NAESP acknowledges is a step in the right direction.

NAESP, in collaboration with NASSP, reminded lawmakers in a letter that these models have absolutely no basis in research. In fact, many researchers say that high turnover of the principal and teaching staff is a contributor to—not a cure for—low performance. The dismissal of any principal should be a local decision, not one made by the federal government. And of course, all principals deserve a fair, objective evaluation at minimum before any personnel action is taken. NAESP continues to fight against including these models in ESEA’s final mark-up.

Stay tuned for more reports on the politics and policy of ESEA, including a comprehensive summary of how the bill stands at www.naesp.org/advocacy.