Support Amendments to the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015
Recipient: U.S. Senate
View the PDF of this letter here.
Strengthen Accountability, Data Collection, and Resource Equity: Ensure Every Child has the Opportunity to Achieve
Dear Senator:
On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States, we urge you to support the following amendments to the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015. We believe that the bill must be improved by: strengthening accountability for student outcomes; providing additional data on student groups; addressing disparities in resources; and providing a more meaningful federal role.
We urge you to SUPPORT these PRIORITY amendments that address core weaknesses in the bill:
Murphy Amendment to Title I (#1)
This amendment ensures that all schools are accountable for the achievement of all students and requires states to identify and support schools where all students or groups of students are not meeting goals.
Warren Amendment to Title I (#3)
This amendment requires the “cross-tabulation” of data on student outcomes so that we can analyze how students are doing by looking at race, gender, and disability status together.
Baldwin Amendment to Title I (#5)
This amendment requires states to report on disparities in critical educational resources between school districts and to remedy the disparities they identify.
Bennet Amendment to Title I (#1)
This amendment closes the comparability loophole requiring the use of actual salaries in demonstrating that state and local funds are equitable before federal funds are added.
We also urge you to SUPPORT these amendments, which will strengthen the bill:
Bennet Amendment to Title IV (#1)
This amendment provides grants to promote family engagement and strengthens the connections between schools and families.
Warren Amendment to Title I (#2)
This amendment requires states to set both short- and long-term goals for getting all students and all groups of students to college and career ready graduation.
Bennet Amendment to Title I (#2)
This amendment requires states to incorporate student learning growth into their accountability systems.
Baldwin Amendment to Title I (#6)
This amendment ensures that the minimum number of students required for reporting (the “n” size) is not misused to obscure important data about groups of students.
Sanders Amendment to All Title I, II and III (#1)
This amendment provides sufficient authorization of funds so that the law can be implemented and students can receive the supports they need.
Casey Amendment to Title IV (#3)
This amendment encourages reductions in the use of exclusionary discipline and supports more positive alternatives.
Casey Amendment to Title IV (#1)
This amendment would help to address the problems of bullying and harassment.
Franken Amendment to All Titles (#1)
This amendment prohibits discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity in schools.
Franken Amendment to Title I (#2)
This amendment supports the educational stability of youth in foster care.
Franken Amendment to Title I (#3)
This amendment provides for additional disaggregation of student data in order to see how different groups of Asian American students are performing.
Murphy Amendment to Title I (#3)
This amendment requires states to describe how they will keep students safe from restraint and seclusion.
Franken Amendment to Title VII (#1)
This amendment promotes and protects Native American language schools and programs.
We look forward to working with you to ensure that the existing critical protections included in this bill continue to be preserved and that the improvements we seek are incorporated in the final bill. If you have any questions, please contact Liz King, Senior Policy Analyst and Director of Education Policy, at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Wade Henderson
President & CEO
Nancy Zirkin
Executive Vice President