Alexander Statement on Final ESSA Accountability Rule

WASHINGTON, November 28 — Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on the Department of Education’s final regulation for implementing the accountability provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act:

“This regulation goes to the heart of the new law fixing No Child Left Behind, which reversed the trend toward a national school board and restored to states, communities and classroom teachers responsibility for the education of our children. I would have moved to overturn the earlier version of this regulation because it was not authorized by the new law, and included provisions specifically prohibited by the new law. I will carefully review this final version before deciding what action is appropriate.”

On May 31, 2016 the Department of Education released its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on accountability, state plans, and report cards under ESSA, which says that states must identify new schools for improvement using their new accountability systems at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year. The Senate education committee has held six hearings this year on implementation of ESSA to make sure that the law is being implemented in the way that Congress wrote it.