State and Local Education Flexibility Act of 2007

Bill: 110-hr-2946
Sponsor: Rep. Terry, Lee [R-NE-2]
Introduced: 2007-06-28 in the House
Policy area: Education
Subjects: Academic performance
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Compensatory education
Congress
Congressional investigations
Congressional reporting requirements
Data banks
Disabled
Distance education
Dropouts
Economics and Public Finance
Education of the disadvantaged
Educational accountability
Educational planning
Educational statistics
Educational tests
Elementary and secondary education
Elementary education
Employment tests
Families
Federal aid to education
Government Operations and Politics
Housing and Community Development
Illiteracy
Intergovernmental fiscal relations
Labor and Employment
Parent and child
Parent-school relationships
Rating of teachers
Right of privacy
Rural education
School districts
Science, Technology, Communications
Scientific education
Secondary education
Social Welfare
Social sciences
Special education
Standards
State laws
Student records

Summary:
action_date: 2007-06-28
text: 
State and Local Education Flexibility Act of 2007 - Amends part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to revise requirements for determining whether states, local educational agencies (LEAs), and schools are making adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward state academic performance standards.
 
Provides for state and local flexibility, under specified conditions, to: (1) exclude from AYP and academic assessments the performance of certain limited English proficient students; (2) include in favorable AYP graduation rates certain students who require extra time to graduate due to exceptional circumstances or disability; (3) modify academic content and achievement standards in the individual education plans of students with disabilities; (4) develop assessments locally and use multiple assessments; and (5) have alternative qualification requirements for special education teachers and rural teachers. 
 
Subjects social studies teachers to ESEA competence requirements. Treats teacher competence in general science or social sciences as competence in those subjects' subdisciplines.
 
Directs the Comptroller General to study the adequacy of ESEA school improvement funds.
 
Allows states, which meet certain requirements, to measure AYP using individual growth models measuring individual student progress from grade to grade.
 
Requires that each school be given a grade based on the percentage of AYP factors it has attained. Gives grade A schools greater flexibility in the use of school improvement funds and states and LEAs greater flexibility in choosing the ESEA intervention they consider appropriate for lower-graded schools that fail to make AYP for two years. 
 
Requires schools to provide parents with student progress report cards showing the school's AYP grade. Requires states to include their performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress on schoolwide and statewide progress report cards.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-09-11
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.
action_date: 2007-06-28
text: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
action_date: 2007-06-28
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2007-06-28
text: Introduced in House