[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 19729]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          PERSONAL EXPLANATION

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALAN S. LOWENTHAL

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 8, 2015

  Mr. LOWENTHAL. Mr. Speaker, I wish to clarify my position on Roll 
Call vote 665. On agreeing to the Conference Report to reauthorize the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, I voted Aye. I 
wish to explain further why I voted in favor of this reauthorization.
  The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is a good fix to the monolithic 
standards of No Child Left Behind. Now we have an environment that lets 
teachers teach and students learn, while maintaining and enhancing the 
original civil rights intent of the original ESEA.
  While ESSA is a significant improvement over current elementary and 
secondary education standards, I will not claim ESSA is a perfect 
bill--no bill can ever claim that title. In particular, I was 
disappointed that all AAPI students will continue to be categorized 
together as one group when student performance data is aggregated and 
reported. The data on AAPI students does not reveal the intricacies of 
the disparate ethnic groups and at worst, it will mask the hard truth 
of low-performing subgroups. I am cautiously optimistic that report 
language included in the accompanying conference report to provide for 
technical assistance to states who do wish to disaggregate AAPI data 
will be made a reality.
  With ESSA in on its way to becoming the law of the land, it is now 
the responsibility of the states to hold their schools accountable. I 
firmly believe the state of California will rise to the occasion and 
develop the standards which work for our state and our institutions of 
higher education. I look forward to successful implementation of ESSA 
which emphasizes equal opportunities for all students.

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