LOCAL Level Act 2015-01-16 Introduced in Senate Learning Opportunities Created At Local Level Act or the LOCAL Level Act

Expresses the sense of Congress that state and local prerogatives over elementary and secondary education need to be preserved.

Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to prohibit any federal officer or employee from directly or indirectly, through grants, contracts, or other cooperative agreements under the ESEA:

  • mandating, directing, or controlling a state's, local educational agency's (LEA's), or school's specific instructional content, academic standards, assessments, curriculum, or program of instruction;
  • incentivizing such an entity's adoption of any specific instructional content, academic standards, assessments, curriculum, or program of instruction;
  • mandating a state or any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under the ESEA; or
  • conditioning the availability of financial support on a state's, LEA's, or school's adoption of any specific instructional content, academic standards, assessments, curriculum, or program of instruction, even if such conditions are specified under any other Act.

Prohibits any funds provided to the Department of Education under the ESEA from being used by the Department directly or indirectly, through grants, contracts, or other cooperative agreements, to endorse, approve, develop, require, or sanction any elementary or secondary school curriculum.

Prohibits conditioning any state's receipt of ESEA assistance on the approval or certification of its academic standards by the federal government.

Includes in the prohibition against the use of ESEA funds on federally sponsored testing and testing materials such use on any assessment or testing materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards or any other academic standards common to a significant number of states. Prohibits the use of Race to the Top funds, provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, on such aligned assessment or testing materials.

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