Senate Bill Pushes STEM Education
Posted on October 23rd, 2011 by Mary Lord
The Senate is moving forward with a draft reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that includes a major push for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The bipartisan bill to fix No Child Left Behind represents 10 months of negotiations between Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin and his Republican counterpart, Sen Mike Enzi from Wyoming. Hearings are scheduled for November 8.
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Tags: Education Policy, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, ESEA, Harkin, No Child Left Behind, Public Policy, STEM education
After months of negotiations, the Senate education committee will take up a comprehensive bill reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The markup is scheduled for Oct. 18. Meanwhile, the House has broken the reauthorization bill into bite-sized pieces and is expected to deal with the big issues of accountability and teacher quality this fall. 
Flanked by students, teachers, state education leaders, aPresident Barack Obama announced a plan to let states and districts waive some of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law’s most onerous requirements. In exchange, however, states would have to adopt certain reforms — including teacher evaluations that take student test scores into account.
States will soon be able to opt out of No Child Left Behind though qualifying for special waivers offered by the Obama Administration. Citing a failure by Congress to make any progress on reforming the controversial legislation before the upcoming school year, the Department of Education will offer waivers to all 50 states, which will be expected to meet certain criteria in order to qualify.
As they hurtle toward 2014, when all students must reach proficiency in reading and math, states are pushing new accountability systems–and waivers. The Council of Chief State School Officers announced recently that 41 states had pledged to work together on a new generation of accountability systems that offer a blueprint for reforming NCLB’s pass-fail cut scores and include “growth” in student learning.
The Republican chairman of the House education committee outlined publicly for the first time a timetable for rewriting the sprawling No Child Left Behind school accountability law. Minnesota Rep. John Kline said he would move five bills to the House floor by year’s end. Experts say that profound partisan disagreement with the Democrat-led Senate could doom the Elementary and Secondary Education Act’s reauthorization this year. 
