§7909 — Title 20 Education | U.S. Code

Summary

Funds from this chapter given to the Secretary or to award recipients may not be used to create or run any federally sponsored national test in any subject, unless another law clearly allows it. This ban covers tests tied to the Common Core or other standards used by many states. The rule does not apply to international comparative assessments under section 9543(a)(6) that are given only to a representative sample of U.S. and foreign pupils.

Title 20, §7909

Education — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal law and except as provided in subsection (b), no funds provided under this chapter to the Secretary or to the recipient of any award may be used to develop, incentivize, pilot test, field test, implement, administer, or distribute any federally sponsored national test in reading, mathematics, or any other subject, unless specifically and explicitly authorized by law, including any assessment or testing materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards developed under the Common Core State Standards Initiative or any other academic standards common to a significant number of States.

(b)Subsection (a) shall not apply to international comparative assessments developed under the authority of section 9543(a)(6) of this title and administered to only a representative sample of pupils in the United States and in foreign nations.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

A prior section 7909, Pub. L. 89–10, title IX, § 9209, as added Pub. L. 103–382, title I, § 101, Oct. 20, 1994, 108 Stat. 3803, related to Native Hawaiian curriculum development and teacher training and recruitment programs, prior to the general amendment of former subchapter IX of this chapter by Pub. L. 107–110.

Amendments

2015—Pub. L. 114–95, § 8026, amended section generally. Prior to amendment, section consisted of subsecs. (a) and (b) relating to general prohibition on federally sponsored testing and exceptions, respectively. 2002—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 107–279 substituted “section 9543(a)(5) of this title” for “section 9003(a)(6) of this title”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2015 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 114–95 effective Dec. 10, 2015, except with respect to certain noncompetitive programs and competitive programs, see section 5 of Pub. L. 114–95, set out as a note under section 6301 of this title.

§7909 Prohibition on Federally Sponsored Testing