House Dems Finally Locate Backbone on Education

A group of top Democratic House lawmakers have sent a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan urging him to keep a strong emphasis on accountability in the department's forthcoming guidance on No Child Left Behind waiver renewal.

The letter is signed by House Education and the Workforce Ranking Member George Miller and members of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. It follows a string of letters that Miller has sent in recent years expressing concerns that the waivers don't have strong enough accountability measures for subgroups like minority students and English Language Learners.

"We remain concerned that information on the achievement and graduation rates of students of color, students with disabilities, low-income students, and English learners are not factoring into accountability decisions in a meaningful or actionable way under ESEA flexibility," the letter says. "While there are certainly provisions of No Child Left Behind that must be improved, the most important legacy of the law remains the requirement that every school be held accountable for the academic performance of all its students."