iNACOL Statement on Senate HELP Committee Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization Bill

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Upon introduction of The Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 by Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Maria Worthen, Vice President of Federal and State Policy of iNACOL, released the following statement:

"The introduction of The Every Child Achieves Act represents a significant step forward in the process to reauthorize the ESEA by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray should be applauded for their bipartisanship and their shared commitment to preparing America's students for success.

"iNACOL's work with educators and leaders who are driving the transformation to student-centered learning, has led us to identify essential building blocks for a new law supporting the success and achievement of all U.S. students and schools, including:

• A maintained focus on equity, with annual academic assessments to shine a light on achievement gaps;
• Systems of assessments and accountability that take into account individual student growth and multiple measures of learning, including a state assessment pilot that enables competency-based approaches;
• The rethinking of federal policies on educator preparation, credentialing and professional development to prepare educators for personalized, competency-based learning environments; and
• Support for developing and scaling up new learning models that enable personalized, competency based education.

We look forward to working with HELP Committee staff to ensure that a reauthorized ESEA truly supports student-centered learning.

About iNACOL
The mission of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) is to ensure all students have access to a world-class education and quality blended and online learning opportunities that prepare them for a lifetime of success. iNACOL is a non-profit organization focusing on research, developing policy for student-centered education to ensure equity and access, developing quality standards for emerging learning models using online, blended, and competency-based education, and supporting the ongoing professional development of classroom, school, and district leaders for new learning models. To learn more about iNACOL, please visit http://inacol.org.

SOURCE International Association for K-12 Online Learning

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