The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation's chief Hispanic advocacy and political rights group, has voiced its support of an updated bipartisan draft that would renovate the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), benefiting English-language (ESL) learners.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was originally established under President Lyndon B. Johnson's "War on Poverty," and it's widely considered one of the farthest-reaching pieces of federal legislature to affect education. The ESEA was designed to fund primary and secondary education, thereby shrinking achievement gaps, offering financial assistance to low-earning families, providing resources, affording grants that strengthen education departments, and giving proper education research and training. President Clinton also showed his support of the ESEA and bilingual education through the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994. In 2001, former president George W. Bush reauthorized the ESEA, renaming it No Child Left Behind Act.

The rewrite would require states to include English-proficiency rates for English-learners and distinct data reporting for subgroups of students, including students from low-earning families, ESL learners, disabled students and non-white students. Also, under the proposal, school districts and states would be granted incentives for the implementation of policies to improve instruction offered to English-learners, which would include communities, teachers and parents being educated on equitable education, professional growth and improved engagement practices.

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) negotiated behind closed doors for two months before arriving to decisions regarding the overhaul to the ESEA. According to sources, Murray vetoed "Title I portability," which is a provision that allows resources to be taken out of poor communities and placed into wealthier communities. However, Republicans support the inclusion of "Title I portability" in the rewrite of the ESEA. Also, a need for an annual federal testing schedule was established, but compromises were made in the form of testing flexibility and state or district-developed assessments.

"Basically, our agreement continues important measurements of the academic progress of students but restores to states, local school districts, teachers, and parents the responsibility for deciding what to do about improving student achievement," Alexander said in a statement.

NCLR, as well as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Found and the League of United Latin American Citizens, has reiterated the need for states and school districts to address the needs of long-term and disabled English-learners. And they urged Congress to uphold a policy of administering annual reading and math tests. These examinations, and similar policies, are believed to focus attention on serving non-white and low-income students.

The Alexander-Murray bill also requires action to improve the nation's worst preforming schools, and it would allow states to decide where they should evaluate teachers and how they should do it.

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