Strengthening America's Schools Act of 2013
Latest action. Placed on Senate legislative calendarThe list of measures reported out of committee and eligible for floor action. Being on the calendar is not a promise of a vote.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) under General Orders. Calendar No. 218.
Strengthening America's Schools Act of 2013 - Revises and reauthorizes programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).
Title I: College and Career Readiness for All Students - Part A: Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged - (Sec. 1111) Revises the school improvement program under part A of title I of the ESEA.
Maintains the requirement conditioning a state's receipt of funds under part A on its developing and implementing academic content and achievement standards and assessments that are applicable to all public elementary and secondary schools and school students in the state.
Requires states to adopt college and career ready academic: (1) content standards in reading or language arts and mathematics by the end of 2014, and (2) achievement standards in those disciplines by the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year.
Requires college and career ready standards to be aligned with: (1) credit-bearing academic coursework at public institutions of higher education (IHEs) in the state, (2) relevant state career and technical education standards and the state performance measures identified in the state plan for career and technical education, and (3) appropriate career skills or state-developed standards that are voluntarily adopted by a significant number of states.
Requires the achievement standards to establish the level of performance expected for each grade level that demonstrates that the student has mastered the material in the state academic content standards for that grade level.
Requires states to adopt academic content and achievement standards in science by the end of 2014 that are aligned with the knowledge and skills needed to be college and career ready.
Requires states to adopt, by the close of 2015, high-quality English language proficiency standards that: (1) identify at least four levels of English proficiency, and (2) are aligned with their academic content standards in reading or language arts so that students can be reliably measured in those disciplines. Requires English learners (currently referred to as limited English proficient students) to be tested against those proficiency standards on an annual basis.
The summary continues for 422 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Reported to Senate with amendment(s)" stage on October 11, 2013. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on October 11, 2013: Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 218.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 113th Congress (2013-14), 296 of the 9,091 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.3 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
THOMAS HARKIN (D-IA) introduced it on June 4, 2013, and 11 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 10 Democrats, 1 independent.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on June 4, 2013, 4846 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4717 days ago, on October 11, 2013.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 113th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2015 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers