Emergency Moratorium Testing Act of 2006

H.R. 4852, the Emergency Moratorium Testing Act of 2006, proposed a significant pause in the standardized testing requirements established by the No Child Left Behind Act. The bill directed the Secretary of Education to encourage states to implement a three-year moratorium on all standardized tests for elementary and secondary students. Following this three-year period, any state seeking federal education funding would have been required to submit annual reports to the Department of Education detailing every standardized test administered within their school systems.

For students and parents, this legislation would have temporarily eliminated the high-stakes testing sessions used to measure school performance and determine federal funding eligibility. The bill aimed to provide a multi-year window where classroom instruction would not be centered around preparing for state-mandated exams. While the bill was introduced in the 109th Congress, it did not advance past the subcommittee stage and never became law.