(a) If a State provides satisfactory evidence to the Secretary that neither the State educational agency (SEA) nor any other State government official, agency, or entity has sufficient authority under State law to adopt academic content standards, student academic achievement standards, and academic assessments applicable to all students enrolled in the State's public schools, the State may meet the requirements under §§ 200.1 and 200.2 by—

(1) Adopting academic standards and academic assessments that meet the requirements of §§ 200.1 and 200.2 on a Statewide basis and limiting their applicability to students served under subpart A of this part; or

(2) Adopting and implementing policies that ensure that each LEA in the State that receives funds under subpart A of this part will adopt academic standards and academic assessments aligned with those standards that—

(i) Meet the requirements in §§ 200.1 and 200.2; and

(ii) Are applicable to all students served by the LEA.

(b) A State that qualifies under paragraph (a) of this section must—

(1) Establish technical criteria for evaluating whether each LEA's—

(i) Academic content and student academic achievement standards meet the requirements in § 200.1; and

(ii) Academic assessments meet the requirements in § 200.2, particularly regarding validity and reliability, technical quality, alignment with the LEA's academic standards, and inclusion of all students in the grades assessed;

(2) Review and approve each LEA's academic standards and academic assessments to ensure that they—

(i) Meet or exceed the State's technical criteria; and

(ii) For purposes of this section—

(A) Are equivalent to one another in their content coverage, difficulty, and quality;

(B) Have comparable validity and reliability with respect to groups of students described in section 1111(c)(2) of the Act; and

(C) Provide unbiased, rational, and consistent determinations of the annual progress of schools within the State; and

(3) Be able to aggregate, with confidence, data from local assessments to make accountability determinations under section 1111(c) of the Act.

(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e-3, 3474, 6311 (b)(2)(E) and 6571) [67 FR 45041, July 5, 2002, as amended at 81 FR 88933, Dec. 8, 2016]