Senators Warren and Gardner Introduce Amendment to No Child Left Behind Act

United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) have introduced a bipartisan amendment to the Every Child Achieves Act that would strengthen education data transparency and analysis by requiring that academic assessment and graduation rate data on state report cards be reported by certain student subgroups– for example, African-American boys, Hispanic girls, or girls with disabilities.

This additional data transparency would help improve communities’ and researchers’ understanding of issues faced by certain vulnerable populations, without placing any additional reporting burdens on states and local schools or districts.

“We need to measure and report student performance in a way that gives us the right tools to help all our kids succeed,” said Sen Warren, Massachusetts’ senior senator. “I’m glad to join Senator Gardner to introduce this bipartisan amendment to improve the quality of our education data without putting new burdens on our states and communities.”

“Data is only as useful as it is usable,” said Sen. Gardner. “This amendment would ensure that the huge volume of education data generated by the states is available to researchers, policymakers, and experts in a format that they can use to help advance and improve academic achievement, and make sure no student slips through the cracks.”

The Every Child Achieves Act currently requires ”State Report Cards” to include academic assessment and graduation rate data reported based on certain characteristics, including race, gender, disability status, economically disadvantaged status, English Proficiency status, and migrant status.

The Warren-Gardner amendment requires that states include on their digital report cards the academic assessment and graduation rate data of students who fit into more than one of those groups to help communities identify issues that are present at the intersections of those characteristics.