[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 106 (Thursday, July 9, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4935-S4937]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        EVERY CHILD ACHIEVES ACT

  Mr. FRANKEN. Mr. President, we have been living under No Child Left 
Behind, or NCLB, for 13 years. During that time, we have learned a lot 
about how NCLB works and a lot more about what doesn't work. Students, 
teachers, and parents across the country have been waiting a long time 
for us to fix this law.
  As a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions 
Committee, I am proud to have worked on the legislation before us today 
and to have helped to get it this far. The Every Child Achieves Act of 
2015 builds a strong bipartisan foundation to reform our national 
education system, and I thank Chairman Lamar Alexander and Ranking 
Member Patty Murray for their leadership on this bill.
  Over the last 6 years, I have met with principals and teachers, 
students, parents, and school administrators in Minnesota. These 
conversations have helped me to develop my educational priorities to 
help improve our schools, our communities, and our Nation's future. I 
worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle, including the 
esteemed Presiding Officer, to find common ground, and I am very 
pleased that many of my priorities to improve student outcomes and 
close the achievement gap are reflected in the legislation that is 
before us today.
  During my conversations with parents and students, I often speak 
about children's mental health. At Mounds View school district in 
Minnesota, I met a single mother named Katie Johnson. She told me about 
her son, a 9-year-old boy whose behavior she just wasn't able to 
control. Because this school had a system in place--a mental health 
model in place--they were able to identify that he might have some 
mental health problems and get him access to community mental health 
services. He was diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger's. He was able to get 
the treatment he needed, and it turned him around. Katie told me that 
her son is now doing well in school and he had taken up Tae Kwon Do. 
Katie told me that her life had been out of control when she couldn't 
control her child. But she pointed to herself--and I will never forget 
this--she pointed to herself and said: ``Now I am bulletproof. I can do 
anything.''
  Well, I said, let's do this. So I came here and introduced the Mental 
Health in Schools Act, and I am proud that over the last couple of 
years we have gotten $100-plus million extra through the appropriations 
process for programs like the one in that bill.
  I have worked hard to get provisions based on my Mental Health in 
Schools Act into the bill before us today. My provisions will allow 
schools that want to work with community-based mental health 
organizations and mental health providers to use Federal education 
funding to provide mental health screening, treatment, and referral 
services to their students by equipping school staff with the training 
and tools to identify what it looks like when a kid has a mental 
illness. Every adult in this school, from the lunch lady to the 
principal, from the schoolbus driver to the teacher, was trained to see 
what it looked like when a kid might have a serious mental health 
issue, and then they would refer to the professional in the school, the 
counselor or school psychologist.
  One of the most common features of successful schools in 
disadvantaged communities is the presence of an effective school 
principal. This should come as no surprise. It is a matter of common 
sense to expect that a successful school or any successful organization 
would have a strong leader. Research shows that school leadership is 
one of the most critical components of

[[Page S4936]]

improving student learning. Yet, despite its importance, the Federal 
Government has not devoted adequate attention or resources to improving 
the quality of principals in high-need schools. That is why I made sure 
that there is dedicated funding written into the base bill to create a 
pipeline of effective principals for high-need schools.

  I had a roundtable a number of years ago. The roundtable was with 
principals from around the Twin Cities. A school had been turned around 
by a great principal. We started talking about testing. One of the 
principals referred to the NCLB test as ``autopsies.'' I knew 
immediately what he meant. Schools had to administer an NCLB test 
toward the end of the year--toward the end of April--and the school and 
the teachers didn't get the results until late June, when the kids were 
out of school. So the teachers couldn't use the results of the tests to 
inform the instruction of their kids. I found out that was why in 
Minnesota schools were administering other tests in addition to the 
NCLB test. On top of that, they were giving computer adaptive tests. 
What are computer adaptive tests? Well, they are computers--meaning the 
teacher gets the results right away, so he or she can use the results 
of that test to inform the instruction of each child. They are 
adaptive, which means that if a child is getting everything right, the 
questions get harder; if they are getting things wrong, the questions 
get easier. This is much more descriptive of where the child is and you 
can pinpoint this. This informs the instruction.
  These kinds of tests were not allowed in the original NCLB because 
they said that all tests had to be standardized--standardized, meaning 
having the same test for each child--but you get a much better 
assessment with computer adaptive tests. That is why I wrote an 
amendment with Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia into the Every Child 
Achieves Act to allow States to use computer adaptive tests. Teachers 
will now be able to create lesson plans based on how each student 
performs, starting the next day. They use computer tests to more 
accurately measure student growth, which is something I believe in--
measuring growth and not judging whether a kid meets or what percentage 
of kids meet some arbitrary performance standard or proficiency 
standard but instead whether the school is helping every kid grow.
  The only thing I liked about No Child Left Behind was the name. Yet, 
every teacher started teaching to the middle--teaching to the kids who 
are just below or just above that artificial line of proficiency. That 
was a perverse incentive not to focus on the kid above the line or 
below the line. Every child achieves. That is what we are going for.
  This amendment will go a long way toward improving the quality of 
assessments used in our schools and will give teachers and parents more 
accurate and timely information about how their kid is growing.
  Another issue I hear about as I travel around Minnesota--this time 
from businesses--is that students graduating from our schools aren't 
ready to take on the jobs that are waiting for them. This is called the 
skills gap. It isn't just a problem in Minnesota; I would say it is a 
problem in every State. We have jobs now that are going unfilled 
because our graduates lack science, technology, engineering, and math, 
or STEM, skills. In fact, by 2018 Minnesota employers will have to fill 
over 180,000 STEM-related jobs.
  So I wrote an amendment to provide funding to support partnerships 
between local schools, businesses, universities, and nonprofit 
organizations to improve student learning in STEM subjects. My 
amendment says that each State can choose how to spend and prioritize 
these funds, which can support a wide range of STEM activities, from 
in-depth teacher training, to engineering design competitions, to 
improving the diversity of the STEM workforce.
  States can also use these funds to create a STEM Master Teacher 
Corps, which is based on my legislation called the STEM Master Teacher 
Corps. This will offer career-advancement opportunities and extra pay 
to exceptional STEM teachers and help them serve as mentors to less-
accomplished teachers.
  Today, it is getting harder and harder for students to pay for 
college. That is why the Presiding Officer, the good Senator from 
Louisiana, and I worked--and the way the cameras work, you can't see 
the Presiding Officer because I am talking; it is Bill Cassidy of 
Louisiana--we worked together to help reduce the cost of college while 
kids are still in high school.
  Our amendment provides funds to cover the costs of advanced placement 
and international baccalaureate exam fees for low-income students. When 
I did college affordability roundtables, I found students who had taken 
an AP course but were afraid to spend the money for the test in case 
they did not get the 3, 4 or 5, which gave them a credit. So this will 
help those students do that.
  Our amendment also includes dual enrollment programs and early 
college high schools. In Minnesota, we call them postsecondary 
educational opportunities. These are two other models that help 
students earn college credit while in high school, and by participating 
and succeeding in these programs, students can save a lot of money 
toward college by getting college credits.
  The academic programs I have mentioned are critical to our children's 
success in school, but many kids also need additional support to help 
them succeed in school. For example, school counselors respond to a 
wide range of student needs, from dealing with the aftermath of 
traumatic events to school bullying, to the college admissions process 
and career advising. But we have a shortage of school counselors in 
this country.
  Unfortunately, the ability of school counseling professionals to 
assess students is often hindered by a high student-to-counselor ratio, 
often two or three times the recommended amount. In Minnesota, we have 
1 counselor for every 700 students. That is unacceptable. So I wrote a 
provision that addresses this critical need by authorizing the 
Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program in the Every Child 
Achieves legislation.
  Federal grants like this one will help States and districts address 
these high ratios between students and counselors and bring more 
trained professionals into schools. Another critical support for 
students is afterschool programs. Senator Lisa Murkowski from Alaska 
and I worked on an amendment together to fund 21st Century Community 
Learning Centers because these afterschool programs play a critical 
role in increasing student achievement, keeping students safe, and 
helping out working families.
  There are over 100 21st Century Community Learning Centers across my 
State of Minnesota, and these centers provide high-quality afterschool 
activities to help address the physical, social, emotional, and 
academic needs of the students they serve. Senator Murkowski and I 
worked on another amendment to help American Indian students. Our 
amendment would fund Native language immersion programs throughout 
Indian Country because language is critical to maintaining cultural 
heritage. Native students who are enrolled in language immersion 
programs have higher levels of student achievement, high school 
graduation rates, and college attendance rates than their Native 
American peers in traditional English-based schools.
  Again, I am very pleased that with the help of my colleagues, I was 
able to include all of these amendments in the legislation we are 
considering today. These provisions will help hundreds of thousands of 
students throughout the country reach their full potential.
  Lastly, I would like to speak in support of Senator Patty Murray's 
and Senator Johnny Isakson's early learning amendment that was included 
in the bill and Senator Bob Casey's floor amendment called strong start 
for America, which also expands access to early childhood education. 
This is so important. The achievement gap between disadvantaged 
students and their peers is evident before they enter kindergarten.
  Early childhood programs can help narrow this gap. In fact, high-
quality early childhood education programs not only help prepare our 
children for school, study after study shows there is a tremendous 
return on investment in high-quality early childhood education, ranging 
from $7 to $16 for every $1 spent. Kids who attend a high-quality early 
childhood program are less

[[Page S4937]]

likely to be special ed kids or to need special education programs, 
less likely to be held back a grade. They have better health outcomes, 
the girls are less likely to get pregnant in adolescence, they are more 
likely to graduate high school, more likely to go to college and 
graduate from college and have a good job and pay taxes, and much less 
likely to go to prison.
  I have been a big supporter of investing in early childhood programs 
for years because it is simply just common sense to do. That is why I 
support Senator Casey's amendment. More generally, No Child Left Behind 
is long overdue for the right kind of reform. With the leadership of 
Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray, my colleagues and I on 
the HELP Committee have worked hard to incorporate the lessons we have 
learned from teachers, students, parents, and school administrators and 
put them into this legislation.
  We have made tremendous progress on this bill, but we still have some 
work to do before it becomes law. We need to close the achievement gaps 
in this country. That means we should expect States to focus on all of 
their students, including low-income and minority students. At its 
core, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, passed first in 1965, 
is a civil rights bill that was intended to improve equality and expand 
opportunity for disadvantaged students.
  So I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues to 
strengthen the accountability provisions in this bill. I urge my 
colleagues to support the Every Child Achieves Act of 2015 so we can 
keep working to support all of our Nation's students.
  Finally, I want to flag something that is very important to me. I 
have a pending amendment to Every Child Achieves that I care an 
enormous amount about, the Student Nondiscrimination Act, which will 
give LGBT--lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students the 
protection they need and deserve in school. I will come back to the 
floor to discuss that amendment at length.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.

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