HR 408 114th Congress House

SMART Act

Official title: To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to award grants to States to improve delivery of high-quality assessments, and for other purposes.

Introduced: February 2, 2015 Introduced by: Bonamici, Suzanne Democratic · Oregon See on congress.gov

Education Academic performance and assessmentsEducation of the disadvantagedEducation programs fundingElementary and secondary education

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Government studies and investigationsTeaching, teachers, curricula

Everywhere this bill has been 3 steps

Introduced

In committee

Reported out

Passed House

Passed Senate

To President

Became law

Apr 29, 2015

Referred to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.

Jan 20, 2015

Referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Jan 20, 2015

Introduced in House

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Latest action April 29, 2015

Referred to the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.

Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Support Making Assessments Reliable and Timely Act or the SMART Act

Amends subpart 1 (Accountability) of part A of title VI of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to revise the program allotting grants to states to develop and administer state academic content and achievement standards and assessments of student progress toward those standards.

Requires each state to use such grant to:

develop and administer such assessments and further align them with the state's academic content standards,
ensure that students with limited English proficiency and disabled students are provided with appropriate accommodations to improve their inclusion in the assessments,
develop state assessment systems aligned to content standards that support systems of continuous improvement,
support local educational agencies (LEAs) in identifying uses of assessment data, and
carry out certain other activities to improve the quality and use of state assessments.

Revises the program awarding competitive grants to states to enhance assessment instruments.

Requires each grantee that has not yet received a grant under such program to use the grant to:

carry out audits of the state assessment system and ensure that LEAs carry out audits of local assessments;
prepare and carry out a state plan, in coordination with LEAs, to improve and streamline state and local assessment systems; and
award subgrants to LEAs to improve the quality and use of local assessments and their alignment with state academic content standards.

Requires a state that has previously received such a grant to use a new grant to:

carry out a state plan, in coordination with LEAs, to improve and streamline state and local assessment systems; and
award subgrants to LEAs to improve the quality and use of local assessments and their alignment with state academic content standards.

Directs the Secretary to provide technical assistance to states to improve their understanding of existing flexibility in the design and implementation of high-quality, streamlined state assessment systems to measure student progress toward state academic achievement standards.

Reauthorizes appropriations for the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the revised subpart 1 grant programs.

Related & companion bills 1

Bill text 1 version