Last week in the Senate, Senators Franken and Kirk circulated a Dear Colleague letter addressed to the ESEA conference leaders, asking them to include the Senate language they introduced (and was passed) in the Senate bill that includes targeted funding for STEM education. As of Friday, October 30, 2015, the letter was signed by 16 Senators, (Kirk, Ayotte, Gillibrand, Cantwell, Coons, Mikulski, Stabenow, Heinrich, Murphy, Wyden, Hirono, Baldwin, Merkley, Capito, Blumenthal, and Udall). NSTA and the STEM Education Coalition were very active in garnering support for this Dear Colleague. As you will recall from previous legislative updates, a similar House Dear Colleague letter supporting the Senate language with dedicated STEM funding in the final ESEA conference bill sponsored by Representatives Hanna and Courtney garnered 34 signatures from both sides of the aisle.

“Will STEM education be the child left behind?” was the question asked during an October 28 NPR report. NPR report Eric Westervelt explored the differences for science education funding in the House and Senate NCLB reauthorization bills now under consideration (the Senate bill maintains language for a STEM end program, the House bill does not), noting that as legislators work toward passage of a final ESEA bill, “with hard-line House Republicans in full revolt, it’s possible the Senate’s STEM provisions would disappear in the inevitable legislative horse-trading.”

Although conferees for the final bill have not been named yet, Congressional education leaders and their staff are working behind the scenes on working out differences between the two bills. Stay tuned.

Also in the Past Week

As widely reported by most media outlets, Congress and the White House came to terms on a two-year budget deal that would lift the sequestration budget caps and address a range of short- and long-term spending issues. The deal would raise the FY2016 budget caps by $25 billion each for defense and non-defense spending (including education) and by $15 billion each in FY2017. It will allow lawmakers to complete the remaining appropriations bills before the December 11th Continuing Resolution expires.  Also important is the fact that this deal could help Rep. Paul Ryan, the new speaker of the House (and responsible for setting the House legislative agenda), push through with the final reauthorization of the ESEA. Read more.

ED Wants to Reduce Testing

Following a report from the Council of the Great City Schools on student testing in urban schools, the U.S. Department of Education and President Obama announced the Department would “review its policies to address any places where the Administration may have contributed to the problem of overemphasis,” and released a Testing Action Plan that “presents principles for fewer and smarter assessments, specific steps the department is taking to mitigate the issue, and examples of state and local efforts to reduce testing.” The Department recommends that “states place a cap on the percentage of instructional time students spend taking required statewide standardized assessments to ensure that no child spends more than 2 percent of her classroom time taking these tests.”

NAEP Math and Reading Scores Released

Finally, politicians and Department of Education officials took keen note of the NAEP scores released this week, which were sobering: Fourth-graders and eighth-graders lost ground on national mathematics tests this year. Eighth-grade reading scores dropped, and fourth-grade reading performance was stagnant. Large achievement gaps between the nation’s white and minority students and between poor and affluent children still exist in both subjects.

Jodi Peterson is Assistant Executive Director of Legislative Affairs for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and Chair of the STEM Education Coalition. e-mail Jodi at jpeterson@nsta.org; follow her on Twitter at @stemedadvocate.

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

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