House to vote on No Child Left Behind rewrite
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is ready to vote Wednesday on a long-sought rewrite of the 2002 No Child Left Behind education law that would roll back the federal government's authority to push academic standards and tell schools how to improve.
The legislation, a compromise reached by House and Senate negotiators, would continue the No Child law's requirement for annual reading and math testing of children in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school.
No Child Left Behind, which was passed by Congress in 2002 during President George W. Bush's first term, ushered in a new era of accountability standards for the nation's public schools.
[...] states would be required to intervene in the nation's lowest-scoring 5 percent of schools, in high school dropout factories and in schools with persistent achievement gaps — something Democrats fought hard to ensure in any bill.
—Bar the Education Department from mandating or giving states incentives to adopt or maintain any particular set of standards, such as the college and career-ready curriculum guidelines known as Common Core.
—Would not permit portability — allowing money to follow low-income students to public schools of their choice, an idea embraced by Republicans.