The House of Representatives will take up the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The Senate is scheduled to follow suit as soon the House is finished. 

The reauthorized law, called the Every Student Succeeds Act, would:

• eliminate the adequate yearly progress requirement;
• maintain certification for paraprofessionals;
• revamp accountability to include other measures of student learning and school indicators, and allows for a pilot program for project based-assessments in lieu of standardized tests;
• authorize funds to be used for class-size reduction, after-school programs and community schools;
• maintain the current targeted Title I funding formula;
• protect programs for English language learners;
• maintain and expand collective bargaining protections;
• expand accountability and transparency provisions for charter schools;
• require states to look at resources and equity in their school improvement plans; and
• strengthen provisions requiring collaboration with teachers and paraprofessionals on school improvement and professional development programs.

This law will give us a fresh start—and will be a wake-up call to any state that wants to double down on what will now be the discarded test-and-punish system that has so dominated in recent years.