Education chairman seeks data on student achievement in the wake of disasters

The chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee Wednesday called on the Education Department to provide information "as soon as possible" on the effect of natural disasters on student achievement after a top education official testified that the department isn’t examining that data yet.

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) made his request to Frank Brogan, the department’s assistant secretary for K-12 education, during a subcommittee hearing on the department’s role in responding to disasters.

Scott was responding to Brogan's statement that the department looks at standardized testing results with state partners to see how students are faring. And over time, Brogan said, the department would like to begin looking at whether natural disasters are having “sizable impacts on student achievement.”

But Brogan said, “We aren’t looking that way just yet.” The department wants to tap researchers to look at the effect on teaching and learning “as we get better developed with how we respond to these things,” he said.

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