II 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 348 

To improve the amendments made by the No Child Left Behind Act of 

2001. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 22, 2007 

Mr. CRAPO introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To improve the amendments made by the No Child Left 

Behind Act of 2001. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improving No Child 

5 Left Behind Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. REFERENCES. 

7 Except as otherwise specifically provided, whenever in 

8 this Act an amendment or repeal is expressed in terms 

9 of an amendment to, or a repeal of, a section or other 

10 provision, the reference shall be considered to be made to 


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1 a section or other provision of the Elementary and Sec2 ondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.). 

3 SEC. 3. ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS. 

4 (a) ACCOUNTABILITY.—Section 1111(b)(2) (20 

5 U.S.C. 6311(b)(2)) is amended— 

6 (1) in subparagraph (I)(ii)— 

7 (A) by striking ‘‘95 percent’’ the first place 

8 the term appears and inserting ‘‘90 percent 

9 (which percentage shall be based on criteria es10 tablished by the State in the State plan)’’; and 

11 (B) by striking ‘‘95 percent’’ the second 

12 place the term appears and inserting ‘‘90 per13 cent’’; 

14 (2) by redesignating subparagraph (K) as sub15 paragraph (N); and 

16 (3) by inserting, after subparagraph (J), the 

17 following: 

18 ‘‘(K) SINGLE COUNT OF STUDENTS.—In 

19 meeting the definition of adequate yearly 

20 progress under subparagraph (C), a student 

21 who may be counted in 2 or more groups de22 scribed in subparagraph (C)(v)(II), may be 

23 counted as an equal fraction of 1 for each such 

24 group. 


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1 ‘‘(L) STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES RE2 QUIRING ALTERNATE ASSESSMENTS.—Notwith3 standing any other provision of this part, a 

4 State may implement the amendments made to 

5 part 200 of title 34, Code of Federal Regula6 tions on December 9, 2003 (68 Fed. Reg. 

7 68698) (related to achievement of students with 

8 significant cognitive disabilities) as if such 

9 amendments— 

10 ‘‘(i) permitted the proficient or ad11 vanced scores on alternate assessments of 

12 not more than 3.0 percent of all tested stu13 dents to be considered as proficient or ad14 vanced, respectively, for the purposes of 

15 determining adequate yearly progress, ex16 cept that— 

17 ‘‘(I) any assessment given to any 

18 such so considered student for the 

19 purposes of determining such ade20 quate yearly progress shall be re21 quired by the individualized education 

22 program of such so considered stu23 dent; 

24 ‘‘(II) the individualized education 

25 program shall reflect the need for any 


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1 such alternate assessment based on 

2 the evaluation of such so considered 

3 student and the services provided such 

4 so considered student under section 

5 614 of the Individuals with Disabil6 ities Education Act; and 

7 ‘‘(III) the individualized edu8 cation program shall include written 

9 consent from the parent of such so 

10 considered student prior to such alter11 nate assessment being administered; 

12 ‘‘(ii) used the term ‘students requiring 

13 alternate assessments’ in lieu of the term 

14 ‘students with the most significant cog15 nitive disabilities’; and 

16 ‘‘(iii) permitted the eligibility, of such 

17 so considered students to have the stu18 dents’ scores of proficient or advanced on 

19 alternate assessments counted as proficient 

20 or advanced for purposes of determining 

21 adequate yearly progress, to be determined 

22 by the State educational agency, except 

23 that such eligibility shall, at a minimum, 

24 include— 


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1 ‘‘(I) such so considered students 

2 who are receiving services pursuant to 

3 a plan required under section 504 of 

4 the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; 

5 ‘‘(II) the students described in 

6 subclause (I) who are assessed at a 

7 grade level below the grade level in 

8 which the students are enrolled (out 

9 of level assessments); and 

10 ‘‘(III) the students described in 

11 subclause (I) who are considered stu12 dents with the most significant cog13 nitive disabilities, as defined by the 

14 State educational agency, on the day 

15 before the date of enactment of the 

16 Improving No Child Left Behind Act. 

17 ‘‘(M) OTHER MEASURES OF ADEQUATE

18 YEARLY PROGRESS.—Notwithstanding any 

19 other provision of this paragraph, a State may 

20 establish in the State plan an alternative defini21 tion of adequate yearly progress, subject to ap22 proval by the Secretary under subsection (e). 

23 Such alternative definition may— 

24 ‘‘(i) include measures of student 

25 achievement over a period of time (such as 


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1 a value added accountability system) or the 

2 progress of some or all of the groups of 

3 students described in subparagraph (C)(v) 

4 to the next higher level of achievement de5 scribed in subparagraph (II) or (III) of 

6 paragraph (1)(D)(ii) as a factor in deter7 mining whether a school, local educational 

8 agency, or State has made adequate yearly 

9 progress, as described in this paragraph; 

10 or 

11 ‘‘(ii) use the measures of achievement 

12 or the progress of groups described in 

13 clause (i) as the sole basis for determining 

14 whether the State, or a local educational 

15 agency or school within the State, has 

16 made adequate yearly progress, if— 

17 ‘‘(I) the primary goal of such 

18 definition is that all students in each 

19 group described in subparagraph 

20 (C)(v) meet or exceed the proficient 

21 level of academic achievement, estab22 lished by the State, not later than 12 

23 years after the end of the 2001–2002 

24 school year; and 


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1 ‘‘(II) such definition includes in2 termediate goals, as required under 

3 subparagraph (H).’’. 

4 (b) ASSESSMENTS.—Section 1111(b)(3)(C) (20 

5 U.S.C. 6311(b)(3)(C)) is amended— 

6 (1) in clause (ix), by striking subclause (III) 

7 and inserting the following: 

8 ‘‘(III) the inclusion of limited 

9 English proficient students, who— 

10 ‘‘(aa) may, consistent with 

11 paragraph (2)(M), be assessed, 

12 as determined by the local edu13 cational agency, through the use 

14 of an assessment which requires 

15 achievement of specific gains for 

16 up to 3 school years from the 

17 first year the student is assessed 

18 for the purposes of this sub19 section; 

20 ‘‘(bb) may, at the option of 

21 the State educational agency, be 

22 assessed in the first year the stu23 dent attends school in the United 

24 States (not including the Com25 monwealth of Puerto Rico); and 


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1 ‘‘(cc) shall not be included 

2 in any calculation of an adequate 

3 yearly progress determination 

4 when the student is in the first 

5 year of attendance at a school in 

6 the United States (not including 

7 the Commonwealth of Puerto 

8 Rico).’’; and 

9 (2) in clause (x), by inserting ‘‘of clause (ix)’’ 

10 after ‘‘subclause (III)’’. 

11 (c) REGULATIONS AFFECTING LIMITED ENGLISH

12 PROFICIENT CHILDREN AND CHILDREN WITH DISABIL13 ITIES.—Section 1111 (20 U.S.C. 6311) is amended by 

14 adding at the end the following: 

15 ‘‘(n) CODIFICATION OF REGULATIONS AFFECTING

16 LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENT CHILDREN.—Notwith17 standing any other provision of this part, this part shall 

18 be implemented consistent with the amendments proposed 

19 to part 200 of title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations 

20 on June 24, 2004 (69 Fed. Reg. 35462) (relating to the 

21 assessment of limited English proficient children and the 

22 inclusion of limited English proficient children in sub23 groups) as if such amendments permitted students who 

24 were previously identified as limited English proficient to 

25 be included in the group described in subsection 


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1 (b)(2)(C)(v)(II)(dd) for 3 additional years, as determined 

2 by a local educational agency (based on the individual 

3 needs of a child) for the purposes of determining adequate 

4 yearly progress.’’. 

5 SEC. 4. SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT AND PUBLIC SCHOOL 

6 CHOICE. 

7 Section 1116(b) (20 U.S.C. 6316(b)) is amended— 

8 (1) in paragraph (1)— 

9 (A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘(in 

10 the same subject for the same group of stu11 dents, as described in section 

12 1111(b)(2)(C)(v))’’ after ‘‘2 consecutive years’’; 

13 (B) in subparagraph (E)(i)— 

14 (i) by striking ‘‘In the case’’ and in15 serting ‘‘Except as provided in subpara16 graph (G), in the case’’; and 

17 (ii) by striking ‘‘all students enrolled 

18 in the school with the option to transfer to 

19 another public school’’ and inserting ‘‘stu20 dents who failed to meet the proficient 

21 level of achievement on the assessments de22 scribed in section 1111(b)(3), are enrolled 

23 in the school, and are in the group whose 

24 academic performance caused the identi25 fication under this paragraph, with the opVerDate Aug 31 2005 01:40 Jan 25, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S348.IS S348

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1 tion to transfer to one other public school 

2 identified by and’’; and 

3 (C) by adding at the end the following: 

4 ‘‘(G) OPTIONS.—A local educational agen5 cy may offer supplemental educational services 

6 as described in subsection (e) in place of the op7 tion to transfer to another public school de8 scribed in subparagraph (E), for the first school 

9 year a school is identified for improvement 

10 under this paragraph.’’; 

11 (2) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A) 

12 of paragraph (5), by inserting ‘‘(in the same subject 

13 for the same group of students)’’ after ‘‘adequate 

14 yearly progress’’; and 

15 (3) in the matter preceding clause (i) of para16 graph (7)(C), by inserting ‘‘(in the same subject for 

17 the same group of students)’’ after ‘‘adequate yearly 

18 progress’’. 

Æ 


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