Many children return to school without Common Core results

WASHINGTON -- No more sleeping in.

With new backpacks, pens and pencils and clothes, millions of children are back in school or heading there after summer vacation. Many are excited; some are anxious -- and still waiting for the results of the new tests they took last spring aligned to the Common Core academic standards.

Congress returned from its summer vacation after Labor Day and on its agenda is a rewrite to the No Child Left Behind education law that requires the annual academic testing.

The House and Senate passed competing versions, and congressional negotiators need to reconcile them.

Some things to know as students, parents and teachers embark on a new school year:

Enrollment

About 50.1 million students will attend public elementary and secondary schools this fall. Enrollment is expected to be slightly higher than a year ago, when 50 million students were enrolled in public schools, according to the Department of Education.

An additional 4.9 million students are expected to attend private schools this fall.

The National Center for Education Statistics estimates 3.3 million students will graduate from high schools, public and private, at the end of the school year.

In all, about $634 billion will be spent in the 2015-2016 school year for public elementary and secondary schools. Costs include salaries for school personnel, benefits, student transportation, books and energy costs. The cost per student is projected at $12,605 for the current school year.

Common Core

This past spring saw the rollout of new tests based on the Common Core standards. The reading and math tests replace traditional spring standardized tests.

About 12 million students in 29 states and the District of Columbia took the tests developed by two groups -- the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC).

According to Smarter Balanced, only a few states have released scores from the spring -- Connecticut, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Missouri, West Virginia and Vermont. Most states have not been able to put out test scores before the start of classes.

The delay was expected in the exam's first year, but it's still frustrating for some teachers and parents.

Scores for the almost 5 million students who took the PARCC tests still have not been released. PAARC is setting benchmarks for each performance level.

The partnership says they're due for release this fall, and the goal in future years of the tests is to release the results as close to the end of the school year as possible.

America's take

Many in the country question the idea of rating a teacher based partly on how students perform on standardized tests -- something supported and encouraged by the Education Department as part of the No Child Left Behind education law.

A recent Gallup Poll found 55 percent of those questioned opposed linking teacher evaluations to their students' test scores. Among those with children in public schools, opposition was stronger, at 63 percent.

More than 40 states are moving forward with plans to evaluate teachers and principals in part on how well their students perform on standardized tests, according to the department.

No Child Left Behind

Congressional negotiators will have to iron out differences between House and Senate bills rewriting the much-criticized and outdated No Child Left Behind education law from 2002.

Both bills would maintain the annual testing requirements in reading and math in third grade through eighth grade and once in high school.

But they would allow the states to determine whether and how to use those tests to assess the performance of schools, teachers and students.

The bills would bar the Education Department from mandating or giving states incentives to adopt or maintain specific academic standards, such as Common Core.

The House measure would allow federal money to follow low-income children to public schools of their choice; under current law, those dollars remain at the struggling schools.