U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos today announced the U.S. Department of Education’s 2017 cohort of School Ambassador Fellows. This year’s cohort includes four teachers, one principal and one counselor.
“This year, we are thrilled to announce we are expanding the scope of the Teaching and Principal Ambassador Fellowship into the School Ambassador Fellowship. This expanded program will allow all school-based staff members—not just teachers and principals—the opportunity to participate in this important program and provide valuable contributions to the national education dialogue,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. “The Fellowship program is designed to improve education for all students by involving practitioners in the development and implementation of national education policy. The Fellows also work directly with Department staff members to inform our understanding of how policies and programs are implemented and experienced by students, educators and families at the local level.”
The six new Fellows were at the Department this week for a three-day summit to become more familiar with federal education policy and Department staff, as well as to begin exchanging ideas for enhancing communication between teachers, stakeholders and education policy leaders.
This year’s full-time Washington, D.C., Fellow is:
Melody Arabo, a third-grade teacher in a hybrid role at Keith Elementary School and the 2015 Michigan Teacher of the Year from West Bloomfield, Michigan.
This year’s part-time Fellows are:
Elmer Harris, a 5th Grade Teacher at Christa McAuliffe Elementary School from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Matthew Scott Crisp, principal at Jackson Hole High School from Jackson, Wyoming.
Patrick O’Connor, an Assistant Dean of College Counseling at Cranbrook Schools, from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Megan Power, an Elementary Teacher at Design39Campus from San Diego, California.
Jennifer Ramsey, a Science Teacher, KIPP DC Heights Academy from Washington, D.C.
The 2017 Fellows build on the work of the previous cohorts, who have now collectively reached and connected with more than 110,000 educators through more than 153 discussions and events with stakeholders from all 50 states, D.C., four territories and two foreign countries.
Education Week — Three White House commissions that address education issues for black, Hispanic, and Asian American and Pacific Islander students say they haven’t met since President Donald Trump took office, and that his administration has ignored their attempts to reach out. They may not be around much longer.
That’s the important takeaway from Education Week’s Corey Mitchell’s story this week on three presidential advisory commissions on educational excellence. Their charter is also set to expire tomorrow. They were founded in 1990 under President George H.W. Bush. Here’s the latest:
Appointees to the African-American and Hispanic commissions, many of whom are educators, helped launch President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative, which sought to improve education and expand opportunities for black, Latino and Native American boys. The program lives on as a nonprofit and recently merged with the Obama Foundation.
“The commissions were important places for us to reach out to these communities and engage people around issues that were important to them,” said Roberto Rodríguez, who worked in the White House as one of Obama’s top education advisers…
Washington, DC – The DC State Board of Education (SBOE) will hold its third Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Task Force meeting on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. in Room 1114 at 441 4th Street NW. The twenty-nine members of the task force will continue the important work of devising education policy recommendations related to the District’s implementation of ESSA. More information about the work of the task force can be found at sboe.dc.gov/essa.
All task force meetings are open to the public. However, individuals and representatives of organizations are not permitted to speak or participate during task force sessions. District residents may stay involved and provide input throughout this process in a variety of ways. Individuals and representatives of organizations may submit written testimony or information for consideration by the task force by emailing sboe@dc.gov. The task force meeting will be streamed live via Periscope for those community members who are unable to attend in person.
On October 4, 2017, the SBOE will hold its monthly working session. The working session will be held at 5:00 p.m. in Room 1114 at 441 4th Street NW. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) will present information related to their plan for getting input from the public on the content of a new school report card that will provide information on all of the District’s public and public charter schools. State Board members will also receive an update from staff on a grant that the State Board received from the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE). The Chairs of the High School Graduation Requirements Task Force and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Task Force will also update the Board on their work.
The public is welcome to attend the working session. However, individuals and representatives of organizations are not permitted to speak or participate during the working session. Individuals and representatives of organizations may submit written testimony for consideration by the SBOE. Written testimony may also be submitted by email at sboe@dc.gov.
The draft agenda for the working session is below. Please note that the agenda may be altered, modified or updated without notice.
I. Call to Order
II. Announcement of a Quorum
III. School Report Card Public Engagement Plan
IV. NASBE Deeper Learning Grant Update
V. Committee Updates
VI. Office Reports
VII. Adjournment
The State Board of Education provides policy leadership, support, advocacy, and oversight of public education to ensure that every student is valued and learns the skills and knowledge necessary to become informed, competent, and contributing global citizens. More information about the SBOE can be found at sboe.dc.gov.
Think back to grade school for a moment and envision that one teacher who could captivate you more than any other. Did that teacher look a bit like you? One recent study says: probably.
There’s mounting evidence that when black students have black teachers, those students are more likely to graduate high school. That new study takes this idea even further, providing insight into the way students actually think and feel about the teachers who look like them and those who don’t.
Here’s how it worked:
Researchers surveyed more than 80,000 public school students, grades four through eight, across six different states.
These students were asked to evaluate how well their teachers led their classrooms.
The researchers paid special attention to the way students — black, white and Hispanic — in the same classes rated the same teachers.
The study found that when students had teachers of the same race as them, they reported feeling more cared for, more interested in their schoolwork and more confident in their teachers’ abilities to communicate with them. These students also reported putting forth more effort in school and having higher college aspirations.
When students had teachers who didn’t look like them, the study found, they reported lower levels of these feelings and attitudes. These trends were most visible in black students, especially black girls.
These findings support the idea that students do better in school when they can view their teachers as role models, says Brian Kisida, who coauthored the paper. And if that teacher looks like you, you might perceive them as precisely that, a role model.
One problem: a growing number of students don’t have teachers who look like them. The majority of students in public school are students of color, while most teachers identify as white. And this so-called teacher-diversity gap likely contributes to racial disparities in academic performance.
“The national achievement gap is unidirectional,” says Anna Egalite, another coauthor. Students who are white fare far better than students who aren’t, and that might have something to do with the relative homogeneity of teachers. According to recent statistics, just 18 percent of teachers were people of color.
But a more diverse population of teachers alone won’t help students of color, says Gloria Ladson-Billings, a professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. To change attitudes and behaviors about school, she says, “We need teachers who view their students of color as whole people.”
And that’s key because diversifying the teaching force might take a while. But one thing policymakers can do to shrink the achievement gap, Egalite and Kisida say, is pay attention to the things students of color say they appreciate about having teachers who look like them. Only then, they say, can practitioners train teachers to communicate with diverse bodies of students.
Every day, decisions are being made by policymakers at the federal, state, and district level that impact school leaders and students. With the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), school leaders like you have the opportunity to work collaboratively with state legislators to develop and influence program funding in order to provide the highest quality education for your students.
For that very reason, NASSP has developed the ESSA Toolkit for Principals to empower you to be influencers throughout the implementation process. Use this toolkit as your resource as you reach out and urge your federal and local legislators to fully fund and implement the law.
ESSA Fact Sheets
The ESSA Fact Sheets will help school leaders become experts on the issues that will most affect the practices in their schools. Utilize the fact sheets to get up to speed on what each title includes and opportunities for you to advocate.
The toolkit has sample letters, op-eds, social media posts, and tutorials on how to tell your story. Use this as a starting point when you are reaching out to the media.
The law requires principal involvement in the planning process for each state. To get involved, you can visit your state department of education ESSA page. We have provided all available links, by state, here.
Thomas B. Fordham Institute
1016 16th St. NW
7th Floor
Washington>, DC 20036
United States
Now that states have submitted their ESSA plans and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos begins to issue her stamp of approval, what happens next? It’s time to put these plans into action; which states are most likely to see significant achievement gains in the coming years? Who has the ambition, coherence, and strategy to drive their systems toward meaningful improvements?
Join us on October 3rd, as we identify states with strong plans and distinct approaches and hear state superintendents and education advocates make the case that their work will lead to greater student success. At the close of the event, audience members will vote on who they think will show the most achievement gains in coming years. We’ll be back four years from now to see if they were right.
Moderator:
Michael J. Petrilli
President
Thomas B. Fordham Institute @MichaelPetrilli
Participants:
Matthew Ladner
Senior Research Fellow (Representing Arizona)
Charles Koch Institute @MatthewLadner
Candice McQueen
Commissioner
Tennessee Department of Education @McQueenCandice
Glen Price
Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction
California Department of Education @glenprice
John White
State Superintendent
Louisiana Department of Education @LouisianaSupe
Register here for the event, and follow the discussion on Twitter with @educationgadfly and #ESSAChallenge. Please visit this page at 3:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, October 3rd, to watch the proceedings live.
The Texas Education Agency submitted its ESSA plan to the U.S. Department of Education. Belton Independent School District Superintendent Susan Kincannon expressed her concern about some aspects of the plan. “The (ESSA) plan includes an overly complicated methodology for evaluating and rating schools and continues to be detrimental to campuses with a higher concentration of economically disadvantaged students.” However, Kincannon also said the broader elements of the plan look helpful. “I appreciate the strategic priorities outlined in the state plan, especially those that are focused on professional development and increasing teacher knowledge and skills in order to improve instructional practices in the classroom.”
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) formally submitted to the U.S. Department of Education the state’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) consolidated plan on Sept. 25, 2017. The U.S. Department of Education has 120 days to review Texas’ state plan and will conduct a peer review as part of the process.
ESSA in Texas
ESSA provides a unique opportunity for the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to chart a path for shifting key decisions related to accountability, school improvement, teacher quality, and funding back to the state and local level. Commissioner Mike Morath is embracing this opportunity to maximize the new policy flexibility ESSA offers. Under Commissioner Morath’s leadership, TEA is advancing a key goal to establish one vision for the future of the agency, aligning key decision points in developing systems to support ESSA implementation with a new TEA Strategic Plan that will guide all TEA work. Tapping into the new opportunities that ESSA provides will allow for a singular focus on key state priority areas leading to greater levels of student achievement throughout our state.
Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholder engagement has been an important part of the development of the Texas state plan for the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). ESSA returns a significant amount of decision making back to the states, requiring them to establish their strategic vision and determine how they will implement provisions in the statute. TEA is acting on this opportunity to design and implement a broad, statewide vision and develop policies responsive to the needs of students, educators, families, and communities in our state.
TEA, in collaboration with the Texas Comprehensive Center (TXCC), designed and carried out a comprehensive, multi-pronged engagement strategy beginning in January 2016 to collect stakeholder input and feedback to help shape the agency’s strategic direction, inform the development of innovative education systems, and create a unified framework across state and federal policy. This feedback contributes to the foundation of TEA’s Strategic Plan and the Texas ESSA Consolidated State Plan and will inform ESSA implementation as it begins in the 2017–18 school year.
September 27, 2017 – Georgia’s high school graduation rate has increased for the fifth straight year, from 79.4 percent in 2016 to 80.6 percent in 2017.
This is the first year Georgia’s graduation rate has risen above 80 percent using the adjusted cohort calculation now required by federal law. Fifty Georgia school districts recorded 2017 graduation rates at or above 90 percent.
The graduation rate continues to rise as Georgia’s schools and districts increase students’ access to unique, personalized learning opportunities that keep students engaged – including Career Pathways, dual enrollment, AP and IB programs, work-based learning, and internships. Local districts and schools are utilizing data more effectively to identify students’ individual learning needs; there is increased emphasis on a balanced curriculum that supports the whole child and a positive school climate that allows students to learn in a safe, supportive environment.
“It’s wonderful to see Georgia’s graduation rate continue to rise – and rise above 80 percent this year – because we’re not just talking about data points,” State School Superintendent Richard Woods said. “We’re talking about individual students who are moving on, ready and prepared, to their next phase of life. Georgia’s teachers, districts, and schools are personalizing education for each individual student, making sure those students are motivated and encouraged to stay in the classroom because they’re engaged in their learning, because they see how their education connects with their future goals. I’m thrilled to see 80.6 percent of our students graduating, but we can’t stay here at 80.6 – we need to ensure opportunity for every single student in the state of Georgia. I’m confident we’re on our way and will reach that goal.”
Georgia calculates an adjusted cohort graduation rate as required by federal law. This is the first time Georgia’s state graduation rate has risen above 80 percent using the adjusted cohort calculation.
The four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate is the number of students who graduate in four years with a regular high school diploma divided by the number of students who form the adjusted cohort for the graduating class. From the beginning of ninth grade, students who are entering that grade for the first time form a cohort that is subsequently “adjusted” by adding any students who transfer into the cohort during the next three years, and subtracting any students who transfer out.
While all states use the same calculation, each state sets its own requirements for students to earn a regular high school diploma. Georgia has some of the highest requirements in the nation for students to graduate with a regular diploma.
Welcome to the ESSA Toolkit for Principals
Michael J. Petrilli
Matthew Ladner
Candice McQueen
Glen Price
John White
