Former Rep. Kline Discusses Testing under ESSA
August 25, 2017
Former U.S. Rep. John Kline (R-MN) – past chairman of the House Education & Workforce Committee and one of the co-authors of ESSA – discusses the role of annual testing in the law he helped craft. ESSA continues requiring a single state achievement test system beginning in 3rd grade, but it would be up to the states, not the U.S. Dept. of Education, to “decide how to use the testing results to measure and improve school performance.” But now, Arizona and New Hampshire have passed laws that “violate ESSA by permitting individual school districts to choose which assessments to administer,” which could undermine ESSA “in its entirety.” Ultimately, “states are required to follow this law and, simply put, the U.S. Department of Education must enforce the fundamental requirement that the same annual tests be given to all students.”