For Immediate Release
Contact: Ricki Sabia at 301-452-0811
NDSS URGES COMMITTEE MEMBERS TO VOTE AGAINSTH.R. 3989
H.R. 3989 has too many flaws, including harmful provisions for students with disabilities, to be voted out of the Education and Workforce Committee.No ESEA reauthorization bill should be passed unless it follows the following principles.
Tie Federal funding to Accountability. Ensure federal funding that supports the bill is attached to firm, ambitious requirements in federal law designed to improve achievement, especially for struggling students, and accountability for all students. H.R. 3989 significantly diminishes the federal role in education accountability. There are no requirements in the bill for annual performance targets or required interventions to improve academic performance. We need Federal requirements to continue the academic progress that students with disabilities have made in the last decade.
Hold firm against raising or eliminating the existing 1% cap on the alternate assessment on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAS).Prevalence data and other research supportthe position that the number of students taking the AA-AAS is already too high. There is no evidence that supports raising or eliminating the cap. To do so would lower academic expectationsand violate the legal rightsof millions of students with disabilities. Students who take this assessment are often taken off diploma track as early as elementary school, are removed from general education classes, have limited access to the curriculum and have less qualified teachers.
Guarantee that students are not precluded from working toward a regular high school diploma, if they take anAA-AAS. H.R. 3989 should be amended to clarify that states are not permitted to automatically take students who are placed in an AA-AAS off the diploma track.
Ensure that all students have access to the general education curriculum and are not removed from general education classes because they take an AA-AAS.Most of
the AA-AAS regulatory language was incorporated intoH.R. 3989. Certainof those provisions and poor implementation has led to weakening access to the curriculum for students who take that assessment and produced situations where these students are removed from general education classes solely because they take the AA-AAS. This must be addressed in the reauthorization by amending the AA-AAS provisions and including language on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for all students.
Ensure that all students have access to highly qualified teachers. A wealth of research shows that high need students are most likely to be taught by teachers who have not completed their training, have not demonstrated competency in their subject matter, and are inexperienced. All students deserve teachers who are fully-prepared on their first day in the classroom and who prove themselves effective once there. Additionally, it is critical to retain the requirement in current law that parents be provided with information about the background qualifications and training of their child’s teachers.