The best assessment news you probably missed

09 Jun The best assessment news you probably missed

By Dale Chu and Lindsay Fryer

You’d be forgiven for missing it, buried as it is in the weeds of the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget request. But tucked into the document is something we haven’t seen from Washington in years: a clear, affirmative statement of support for statewide assessments, accountability, and transparency under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Neither the Biden administration nor Trump’s first term offered this kind of endorsement. And while the proposal to consolidate programs into a new block grant raises fair concerns, the bottom line is this: under the administration’s approach, states would still be required to test, report, and improve, even with more flexibility in the use of funds.

As proposed, the FY26 budget would consolidate eighteen federal K–12 programs—including the Grants for State Assessments program—into a new $2 billion “K–12 Simplified Funding Program” (SFP). Dedicated testing dollars would disappear, forcing state leaders to prioritize assessments alongside other competing needs within the block grant. But here’s the important shift: the administration makes clear that even without a standalone assessment line item, the federal testing requirements under ESSA would remain in full effect. The proposal explicitly states that the new block grant would “ensure the continued administration of assessments under Title I of the ESEA, notwithstanding consolidation of the State Assessments program.” In other words, the so-called “trigger” in ESSA—allowing states to defer testing if assessment funding dips below $369.1 million—would no longer apply.

That’s a big deal—not just technically, but politically. A couple of years ago, when House Republicans moved to eliminate assessment funding in the FY24 appropriations bill (savvy readers may remember this write up here), it wasn’t even clear lawmakers understood the implications of the $369.1 million trigger. By contrast, the Trump administration’s FY26 proposal acknowledges the provision and preempts its impact. This is the first time in recent memory that the feds have proactively stated that ESSA’s testing, accountability, and reporting requirements must remain intact, regardless of how assessment dollars are structured. In doing so, the administration is signaling that student achievement data and transparency around performance still matter—and that they’re willing to defend those principles, even amid efforts to streamline funding.

What’s more, the budget proposal proactively affirms the importance of State assessments generally:

Annual, high-quality, statewide assessments aligned to challenging State academic standards are a critical element of the statewide accountability systems… providing parents and educators with information they need to understand whether students are meeting State-determined college- and career-ready academic standards. State assessments also help identify schools that are meeting these standards and schools where additional resources and supports may be needed to improve educational opportunity and academic achievement.

These days, it’s rare to hear any policymaker publicly defend the value of statewide tests to shine a light on student achievement, and the proposal links the need for assessment data to direct resource allocation to schools where students need the most support.

To be sure, advocates may have legitimate concerns about whether assessment quality and innovation can thrive without a protected funding stream. But the Trump administration’s approach aims to thread an important needle: consolidating programs to provide more state and local flexibility while preserving core federal guardrails for transparency and improvement. And this is a strong statement of support for state assessments amid concerns about ESEA waivers that could dismantle assessment systems as we know them. For all the noise in education politics today, this quiet affirmation of ESSA’s backbone is a welcome development.

Lindsay Fryer is the President and Founder of Lodestone DC.