Dive Brief:

• U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos wants to maintain the timeline set by the Obama administration for reviewing state plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act, even though accountability regulations could be scrapped by Congress.
• Education Week reports the U.S. Department of Education is reviewing the Obama administration template for state plans released in the original accountability regulations and expects to release a revised template by March 13 that only requires “absolutely necessary” information.
• The idea of multiple templates could complicate state preparation, especially considering the new template will be released just a couple weeks before the first submission deadline, and Education Week reports multiple templates could also make it harder for peer reviewers to hold states to equal expectations.

Dive Insight:

The Every Student Succeeds Act was passed with bipartisan support following years of debate over the next iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. But even though both Republicans and Democrats were generally happy with the new law, Republicans were particularly critical about the Obama administration’s regulations fleshing out some of the more minute details of it. Obama’s team rushed to complete regulations before leaving office, knowing they could be undone immediately by the new leadership.

To what extent that undoing will happen is still unclear, but arguably the most contentious regulations that covered accountability are already on the chopping block, not just by new leadership in the Department of Education, but by Congress itself. Republicans in the House of Representatives have already pushed through a resolution that overturns these regulations and the Senate may soon follow.