Issue	Current law	New law	Tennessee’s status
Content standards	Content and achievement standards required for language arts, math and science with four levels of achievement	States must assure they have "challenging" standards in those three areas that are aligned to college entrance requirements.	Tennessee has standards for those core subjects, as well as for nine other subjects
Evaluation	The original NCLB law was silent on teacher evaluation, but the U.S. Department of Education required states to use student achievement data in evaluations in order to get a waiver from the punishing NCLB sanctions.	States allowed but not required to use principal and teacher evaluations partly based on student academic growth	Tennessee conducts teacher evaluations, 30 percent of which are based on students’ academic growth. This year, that amount has been temporarily reduced as the state transitions to a new assessment.
New tests	Not addressed	Creates pilot program for up to seven states to administer local testing — meaning not everyone in the state would take the same test.	Tennessee is in its first year of a new statewide testing program known as TNReady. A testing task force by Commissioner McQueen has recommended a reduction in district tests.
Opting out	95 percent test participation required; opting out not addressed	Federal law can't override state laws on parental rights; requires districts to notify parents about student participation policies. Up to states to decide how to include participation in accountability	Tennessee does not have a formal opt-out policy at this time.
School choice funding	Not addressed	Allows pilot programs to provide more states flexibility in use of school funds — meaning it would be easier for public funding to follow students to private schools	Tennessee allows education funds to follow some special education students from public schools to private services in accordance with the IEA.
Rating schools	The original NCLB law required all student groups to reach proficiency on state exams by 2013-14.	Requires states to establish “ambitious” goals for improvement in academic indicators such as graduation rates, test scores, student academic growth and English proficiency. States also must use at least one non-academic measure of school quality, to be selected by the state. Based on those indicators, states must “meaningfully differentiate” schools annually, with “much greater weight” given to the academic indicators.	Received waiver from the original law that allows Tennessee to use its own accountability and rating system, which recognizes schools for high test scores, but also for moving students from “below basic,” the lowest possible level on tests, to “basic.”
Report cards	States and districts required to publish report cards with information on student achievement, graduation rates and teacher qualifications. Achievement data must be disaggregated by race and other demographic groups.	Continues previous requirements and adds factors including teacher qualifications at high-poverty schools and per-pupil spending for all schools	Already includes teacher qualifications and per-pupil spending on state report cards.
Struggling schools	No Child Left Behind required struggling schools to use some TItle I money for free tutoring, and to allow students to transfer to higher-performing schools. Persistently low-performing schools could also be sanctioned. In 2009, the federal government required states that accepted school improvement grants to choose from a menu of five prescribed interventions to improve the school.	States must identify struggling schools at least once every three years, including the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools, high schools with graduation rates below 67 percent, and schools with significant achievement gaps. Districts must develop support and improvement plans for such schools. States must take more rigorous action if a school doesn't improve after four years. No specific improvement strategies required.	Tennessee already identifies its lowest-performing 5 percent of schools and schools with significant achievement gaps, but not high schools with graduation rates below 67 percent.
Test streamlining	Not addressed	Provides grants to help states eliminate unnecessary tests	Convened a state testing task force this spring that recommended districts eliminate some tests
Testing	Annual tests on language arts and math required in grades 3-8, once in grades 10-12. Science tests given once in elementary, middle and high school	Retains current annual schedule but allows multiple statewide tests with results combined to produce summative score. Allows limited use of other national tests by districts; also allows states to limit time spent on testing.	Requires annual tests in grades 3-11