On Thursday, May 11, Christopher Klicka, executive director for the National Center for Home Education addressed the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families encouraging them to revamp the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP).HSLDA believes that NAEP may develop into a national test that would, of necessity, mean a national curriculum—because what gets tested is what gets taught. There is no real distinction between a national test and a national curriculum, because national assessment frameworks created by the National Assessment Governing Board will dictate a national curriculum framework. A national curriculum would prevent parents and teachers from tailoring instruction to the needs of their pupils.

Mr. Klicka argued that NAEP continues to grow beyond its original mission to evaluate student development in math and science, branching into values-laden academic areas such as art, history and economics. The NAEP test should be limited to its original intent by eliminating the newly developed state level tests leaving only the national assessment by region.

There is a strong possibility that these changes will be made to the NAEP reauthorization. Please continue to pray Congress will soon adopt these changes and protect the future of America’s education.

Over the last month,HSLDA has received dozens of calls from concerned home schoolers regarding the reauthorization of the Elementary Secondary Education Act being considered before Congress. Much of this concern has spawned out of an e-mail alert sent by a prominent conservative organization that claimed that the ESEA was a “Clinton bill” aimed at federalizing K-12 education. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

By request from the staff of the House Education and Workforce Committee,HSLDA has been working closely with the committee to pass critical education reform measures and rewrite portions of the ESEA. Last year, Congress passed several bills worked on by HSLDA that reduced the federal role in education, eliminated spending, returned education decisions to the states and erased the worst parts of Goals 2000. This year’s reauthorization of the ESEA also contains tremendous improvements from the last ESEA bill in 1994. The best changes are in the House version. Some of these modifications include: a permanent ban on national testing, prohibition of federalized curriculum, complete protection of home schoolers and elimination of the remaining 10 percent of Goals 2000.

The House passed their package in committee earlier this spring and is waiting to bring it to the floor for debate and a vote. The immediate passage of the ESEA in the Senate is doubtful since the Republican leadership is concerned that anti-gun advocates may attempt to attach gun control amendments to the bill.