PARCC
Before No Child Left Behind, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed in 1965 as a part of the "War on Poverty". In hopes of diminishing the achievement gap, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed to create equal opportunity and access to education through high standards and accountability. These standards and accountability techniques came in the form of standardized testing. For the first time, federal money was being sent into local schools and made the production of test-based evidence mandatory for all educators. Standards were being assessed on these state-created exams, and local schools were then accountable to perform on these exams. In 2002, Congress re-examined ESEA and reauthorized it as No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
Education Consolidation and Improvement Act
The 1981 Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), significantly deregulating education in the United States and shifting a number of responsibilities back to the state level. As part of the Reagan administration’s Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981, this act curtailed federal intervention and funding for domestic social causes while expanding the role of state and local government in administering education. This deregulation is symbolized by the reduced size of Title I, which was reduced from 75 pages to just 14.