Education Next – Matthew M. Chingos and Martin R. West
“With Congress moving rapidly to revise the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), no issue has proven more contentious than whether the federal government should continue to require that states test all students in math and reading annually in grades three through eight. The push to roll back this requirement has bipartisan support, and key members of Congress responsible for reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind law have yet to weigh in on the debate. In fact, the discussion draft circulated by Senate Republicans last month included two options on testing, one maintaining current requirements and the other providing states with far more flexibility. Consequently, there is a real possibility that, going forward, states may only be required to test students once in each grade span (i.e., once in elementary, middle, and high school).”(more)