Cincinnati Public Schools projects its enrollment will continue to slightly increase to an estimated 35,544 students in 2018-19, its highest enrollment since 2005-06. Since 2013, the district has gained 2,543 students.
Some key areas of change include:
CPS has 35,355 students enrolled in the 2016-17 school year, an increase of 196 students from the previous year;
CPS has opened three elementary schools in 2016-17 to accommodate a growth surge in enrollment for those age groups;
Charter school enrollment in the district declined by 189 students this school year;
9 percent of CPS students are Black, Non-Hispanic, which represents no significant change from the previous school year;
CPS is giving more preschoolers a strong start, with a projected 440 new students expected to enroll in preschool next year.
Last month, CPS released a report called “Making Progress,” which outlined improvements in the district’s performance, including:
98 percent of CPS third graders met the Third-Grade Reading Guarantee; this represents a 29 percent increase in the number of third graders who achieved the state’s proficiency rate;
96 percent of 2017 graduates have been accepted into a college program, enlisted in the military or entered the workforce, up from 92 percent in 2016;
ACT scores increased 5 percent over the last four years.
The final tax bill that Congress will soon vote on maintains the $250 tax deduction that teachers can use for classroom supplies—and yet teachers’ unions are finding little consolation in a legislative overhaul they say hurts working families.
The version put out by the congressional conference committee Friday afternoon, which still needs to be passed by both the House and Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump, offers a compromise, keeping the deduction where it is at $250.
K-12 teachers, principals, counselors, and aides have been able to claim the “educator expense deduction” for about 15 years now. Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who is still in office, pushed for the deduction as a way of helping reimburse teachers who spend money of their own on supplies and professional development. According to a 2016 survey from Scholastic, teachers spend about $530 out of their own pockets each year on classroom items…
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SUMMARY: In accordance with section 5005 of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the Secretary seeks information from the public regarding actions the Department of Education (Department) can take to improve how it considers the unique needs of rural schools and local educational agencies (LEAs) as it develops and implements its policies and programs. The Secretary intends to use this information in issuing a final report, required under section 5005, describing the actions it will take to increase the consideration and participation of rural schools and LEAs in the development and execution of the Department’s processes, procedures, policies, and regulations. (Preliminary report in pdf format)
DATES: We must receive your comments no later than February 18, 2018.
ADDRESSES: Submit your comments through the Federal eRulemaking Portal or via postal mail, commercial delivery, hand delivery, or email. To ensure that we do not receive duplicate copies, please submit your comments only once. In addition, please include the Docket ID (ED-2017-OCO-0139) at the top of your comments.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to www.regulations.gov to submit your comments electronically. Information on using Regulations.gov, including instructions for accessing agency documents, submitting comments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site under the “Help” tab.
Postal Mail, Commercial Delivery, Hand Delivery, or Email: The Department encourages commenters to submit their comments through the Federal eRulemaking Portal. However, if you mail or deliver your comments in response to this request, address them to Michael Chamberlain, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, room 5E260, Washington, DC 20202. If you email your comments, send them to rural@ed.gov.
Privacy Note: The Department’s policy is to make all comments received from members of the public available for public viewing in their entirety on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov. Therefore, commenters should be careful to include in their comments only information that they wish to make publicly available.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael Chamberlain, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, room 5E260, Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: (202) 453-7527 or by email: Michael.chamberlain@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf or a text telephone, call the Federal Relay Service, toll free, at 1-800-877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background: Section 5005 of the ESSA (Pub. Law 114-95), which was enacted on December 10, 2015, requires the Department to:
“review the organization, structure, and process and procedures of the Department of Education for administering its programs and developing policy and regulations, in order to—
(A) assess the methods and manner through which, and the extent to which, the Department of Education takes into account, considers input from, and addresses the unique needs and characteristics of rural schools and rural local educational agencies; and
(B) determine actions that the Department of Education can take to meaningfully increase the consideration and participation of rural schools and rural local educational agencies in the development and execution of the processes, procedures, policies, and regulations of the Department of Education.”
Section 5005 also requires the Department to publish a preliminary report containing the information described above and provide Congress and the public with 60 days to comment on the proposed actions. Thereafter, the Department must issue a final report to the Department’s authorizing committees in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and carry out each action described in the final report or explain to the authorizing committees the reason for not carrying out any action described in the final report.
Request for Information: Since the passage of the ESSA, the Department has been engaging in the required review and report, including conducting listening sessions on issues facing rural schools and LEAs and ways the Department can address those issues. It gives a brief overview of how the Department is organized and describes how the Department solicited and incorporated input from rural stakeholders as it developed the preliminary report. Additionally, the report explains the processes we currently use to incorporate the rural perspective into our policies and procedures, including processes we have recently implemented in response to stakeholder input, and describes additional proposed actions we can take.
While we invite comment on the entire report, we particularly encourage comment on the proposed actions, as described in the section of the report titled “Additional Actions the Department Can Take to Increase Rural Stakeholder Input.” Specifically, we request feedback on whether:
The actions described in the preliminary report will meaningfully increase the consideration and participation of rural schools and LEAs in the development and execution of the Department’s processes, procedures, policies, and regulations; and
There are other actions the Department can take to achieve this goal.
Accessible Format: Individuals with disabilities can obtain this document in an accessible format (e.g., braille, large print, audiotape, or compact disc) on request to the program contact person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this document is the document published in the Federal Register. Free internet access to the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations is available via the Federal Digital System at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys. At this site, you can view this document, as well as all other documents of this Department published in the Federal Register, in text or Portable Document Format (PDF). To use PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at the site.
You may also access documents of the Department published in the Federal Register by using the article search feature at: www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published by the Department.
Despite constant gains in technology, infrastructure and industry across the United States, Black and brown children are still hampered by some of the largest educational gaps in the nation.
Of the Black and brown children suffering academically throughout the U.S. school system, boys in particular seem to be affected the most, with extremely high educational literacies disparities found in the nation’s capital and neighboring Baltimore.
With a mission to address and correct these educational imbalances, Shawn Hardnett, founder and CEO of the North Star College Preparatory Academy for Boys, recently collaborated with four other D.C. and Baltimore all-male schools for the inaugural “Black and Brown Hackathon,” in order to better facilitate and support Black and brown boys.
“While being here in D.C., my focus has always been on supporting Black and brown boys using the arts,” Hardnett said. “Through my many volunteer roles in education, I noticed a tremendous lack of adequately trained teachers and a [low] number of Black and brown boys succeeding academically and I really wanted to do something that would allow me to correct that.
“Through the help of some very special educators, community members and parents, my goal … is to give Black and brown boys a platform to share their own experiences in school and what it would take for them to do even better,” he said.
During the Oct. 2 event at the partnering Ron Brown College Preparatory High School, 100 male students and over 150 male and female volunteers participated in critical thinking exercises, friendship building games and leadership training.
Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys, Washington Latin Public Charter School and Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys also took part in the event.
”I’ve been to D.C. plenty of times, but when I learned that there was a leadership program for young Black boys going on, that made me really want to go,” said participant Denzel Mitchell. “Today was fun because we got a chance to talk about all these problems that happen to young Black males so that we can help them and enjoy fun activities.”
Desmond Johnson, an eighth-grade student at the Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys known for collectively organizing and helping other students, said the program had already begun to help him.
“Being here makes me think about how I can do and be something better than what I’m doing and being now, and really makes me want to show and tell younger kids how to improve and hopefully how to accomplish their dreams — and my own, too,” Desmond said.
And while students like Raymond Weeden III, a sixth-grader who attends Washington Latin Public Charter School, are fortunate enough to have a ever-present male role model in their lives, Kerel Thompson, a STEM instructor at North Star, said there is still more work to be done.
“Whenever we talk to Black and brown male students, they always list the same issues, with concentration stemming from home issues, attention from girls and the need and want to be cool,” Thompson said. “Our goal is to provide them with structure, keep them engaged and send them a message that they can be and do whatever they want in life. … We are concerned about boys, because we know they are in trouble and we as a society need to start finding out why.”
Sixty percent of Thurgood Marshall Academy’s Class of 2018 participated in the “Early Action” program, in which they applied to colleges and universities early in their senior year and, in some instances, even before the end of the first semester.
One of the most important factors in college admissions is SAT scores. To that end, the academy further invested resources to offer SAT prep classes to seniors, and as a result, 97 percent of its students scored better than 800. Additionally, 50 percent of the academy’s students earned a “super score” of 1000 or greater.
Board of Education Honorees
The D.C. State Board of Education recently honored Paul Howard as the District’s 2018 Teacher of the Year.
Howard, who has taught social studies at LaSalle-Backus Education campus in Northeast for the past five years, will represent D.C. in the Council of Chief State School Officers’ National Teacher of the Year competition.
The board also honored Banneker High and Horace Mann Elementary schools for being selected as a U.S. Department of Education 2017 National Blue Ribbon School.
The program recognizes public and private elementary, middle and high schools based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.
Task Force Update
At its most recent meeting in November, the D.C. State Board of Education proposed changes to high school graduation requirements designed to ensure the District diploma fulfills its intended purpose.
They also suggested further edits to the requirements, indicating which of their peers’ changes they liked, disagreed with, or wanted more information about.
In the coming weeks, the board will present a new version of the draft to constituent groups and provide feedback from those conversations at their December meeting.
Team-Building Success
Under supervision of SEED DC Public Charter School teacher Nick Ford, program coordinator Indian Brown, partners at BUILD and six dedicated mentors, 30 ninth-graders spent a year dreaming up business ideas, forming teams and pitching their business plans to peers and local entrepreneurs.
Through a daily class supplemented by weekly evening programming, students built relationships with local mentors who helped them refine their ideas, products, and approach.
BUILD is a real-life testing ground for students to learn skills in critical thinking, collaboration, innovation, and self-management. And it worked: one SEED DC PCS team won BUILD’s year-end citywide competition for their “Chop-a-Cake” cake-cutter business plan and pitch, while another team took home an award for problem-solving.
The public reporting requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offer greater transparency about school quality, according to experts and education advocates who also predict that the new law will empower parents and make them more informed partners in the education process of their children.
President Barack Obama signed ESSA into law on Dec. 10, 2015.
“Public reporting is going to be very important, because state systems, like what goes into [calculating] letter grades for schools, are incredibly complex,” said Phillip Lovell, the vice president of policy development and government relations for the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington, D.C.-based national advocacy organization that’s dedicated to ensuring all students graduate from high school, ready for success in college and in the workplace. “States are aware of and working on how to communicate information on school performance clearly.”
Brenna McMahon Parton, the director of policy and advocacy for Data Quality Campaign, one of the nation’s leading voices on education data policy and use, said that everyone deserves information, which is why ESSA requires that report cards are easy to understand.
“To date, states haven’t focused on parent needs and, as a result, report cards are difficult to find and use,” said Parton. “As states develop new report cards, they should be sure that parents will have a one-stop-shop that provides information they need about how students and schools in their community are performing.”
ESSA reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the historic civil rights law passed in 1965 and effectively replaced the Bush-era No Child Left Behind Act.
Transparency and parental engagement are integral parts of the new law.
Under ESSA, all schools receiving Title I funds must inform parents of their right to request information about the professional qualifications of their children’s teachers; parents are also encouraged to support their children’s educational experiences by communicating regularly with teachers.
In a post on “The 74,” a nonprofit news site dedicated to education, Rashidah Morgan of Education First, said that, “Greater transparency about school quality, will ultimately empower parents to make more knowledgeable choices about schools.”
Also, transparency on spending and academic results help the public understand how schools are performing in their communities, said Chad Aldeman, a principal at Bellwether Education Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit focused on changing the outcomes and education life for the underserved.
“Accountability systems only work, if people understand what they’re being held accountable for and have enough information to know how to respond,” Aldeman said, adding that parents need good information to make informed choices about where to send their children. “To make that a reality, parents need information about both their own child’s performance, as well as how similar students are performing in other schools.”
Finally, clear, transparent school and district report cards help families make critical decisions and equip community members and the public to push for needed improvement in schools, said Dr. Lillian Lowery, the vice president of PreK-12 Policy, Research and Practice at The Education Trust, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. that promotes high academic achievement for students at all levels, particularly students of color and those of low-income.
“ESSA requires states to report a lot of important information on how schools are doing at preparing all groups of students, including students from low-income families, students of color, English learners and students with disabilities, for post-high school success,” said Lowery. “To maximize the usefulness of this information, state leaders should work with families and education advocates to ensure that report cards are easy to access and understand.”
AFRO NEWSPAPER — As public school students begin a new school year, they do so to an array of educational choice that is the strongest in decades—perhaps ever.
Backed by the decision to increase the Uniform Per-Student Funding Formula, which funds public school operating costs this school year and last, District families continue to demonstrate increasing confidence in D.C. public schools and D.C. charter schools.
[/media-credit] Dr. Ramona Edelin is executive director of the D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools.
The new school year will doubtless see a further increase in public school enrollment after eight consecutive increases, following decades of decline and the flight of those with the means to choose alternatives to the District’s public schools. A trend that began only with charters, enrollment which has grown steadily for over two decades, now extends also to DCPS, where enrollment has increased for six years in a row now.
Charter schools, which educate nearly half of all District public school students, have been a key component in this educational renaissance. Charters are publicly-funded and tuition-free, like traditional public schools, but free to design and develop their school curriculum and culture, while being held accountable for improved student performance.
When charters were first introduced 21 years ago, half of all public school students dropped out before graduating. Yet today, the on-time—within four years—high-school graduation rate is 73 percent for charters, and 69 percent for DCPS.
Standardized test scores have significantly improved at both public charters and DCPS, with the strongest gains among D.C. charter schools serving our most disadvantaged communities, east of the Anacostia River. Just-released scores for last school year show that charter students in economically-disadvantaged Wards Seven and Eight are more than twice as likely to meet state college and career readiness standards as their peers in DCPS.
Importantly, improved test scores in both charters and DCPS have been accompanied by an enriched curricula and a wider range of extra-curricular options.
Bringing choice to our city’s least-advantaged residents has brought huge improvements, in terms of college and career-readiness, for those whose need for a quality education is greatest.
Accordingly, demand for these unique schools is such that nearly 10,000 students are on waiting lists to attend one or more charter campuses in the school year about to begin. Demand for traditional public schools in the out-of-boundary program also has increased. And choice for parents has been simplified by DCPS and D.C. charter participation in the common lottery, which allocates places when schools’ popularity causes them to be over-subscribed.
Charters’ success also has been the catalyst for improvements in the traditional public school system, following the introduction of mayoral-control of DCPS and the appointment of three reforming School Chancellors.
The District has replaced a vicious circle of declining standards and enrollment, and therefore a dwindling tax base, with a virtuous one of rising standards, increasing enrollment, and broader and deeper revenue sources.
Of course, more could be done to support the improvements made possible by the District’s charter school innovation—for newcomers and existing residents.
Not least among these is the fact that District law requires that D.C. charter school students receive the same city funding as their DCPS counterparts, at each grade and level of special education. Yet the city provides DCPS between $72 million to $121 million in extra funding annually—support that charters do not receive.
Additionally, D.C.’s government spends about three times as much on DCPS students for facilities, compared to their siblings and neighbors in D.C. charters. Subject to annual budget wrangling in a super-hot real estate market where charter schools must find their own space to educate their students, charters’ facilities allowance is inadequate to their students’ needs.
The Mayor’s proposed 2.2 % increase in charters’ facilities funding – approved by the Council—locked in for four years is a welcome step toward narrowing funding inequity. A facilities fund floor of $3,500 per-student, indexed to increasing costs, adjusting accordingly each year would make up for some lost ground, and reflect economic realities.
Leveling the playing field could enhance the choices that have created today’s confidence in education in the District. This—and continued adequate investment in operational and facilities funds—is required to build on the District’s education successes, fulfilling the potential of every child.
Dr. Ramona Edelin is executive director of the D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed by President Obama on December 10, 2015. ESSA reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and replaces the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. ESSA creates an important opportunity for DC to expand upon its efforts around school improvement, educator development and support, and sharing of transparent and comparable information about District of Columbia public schools.
The State Board Makes 10 Recommendations for Final Accountability Plan
Read the recommendations below. They reflect the consensus of the SBOE that the weight of test scores should be reduced and additional non-testing measures that encourage a well-rounded education be added. Additionally, they also recommend the establishment of task forces on School Climate/Well-Rounded Education and High School Growth Measures. These task forces would provide recommendations to SBOE and OSSE for inclusion in the accountability plan by April 2018. Further recommendations relate to the use of PARCC with English Language Learners. Finally, the SBOE agrees with OSSE that the accountability system be reviewed regularly to ensure that the system is providing the information our residents need. SBOE is recommending that that process be done jointly between OSSE and SBOE.
ESSA Updates
D.C. SBOE and OSSE are currently developing a new accountability system under ESSA that will meet the needs of D.C. students. ESSA implementation begins in the 2017-2018 school year. Working together, the SBOE and OSSE must decide what indicators of school quality should be included in the accountability system, goals for improvement in each category (for all students and each subgroup of students), and how to weight the various accountability components.
The Weight of Testing: How much should test scores count in the school rating? The OSSE discussion draft suggests 80%; the SBOE response memo suggests it should be much lower. Overwhelmingly, parents and teachers echoed sentiments in their testimony that so much weight on testing has damaged education and has lead to a narrowing of the curriculum. There is pressure on schools to focus on teaching students who are close to the proficient cusp instead of those who score substantially higher or lower; a disincentive for schools to enroll challenging students, whose test scores typically grow more slowly; and, not enough attention to the non-academic aspects of education, including providing a nurturing, safe, challenging, engaging environment. Moving forward, parents and teachers want testing to be set at the lowest level allowed by law.
The Weight of Growth (Individual Progress) in Relation to Proficiency (Achieving Set Standards): Rather than only holding schools accountable for reaching specific proficiency levels, ESSA offers the opportunity for DC to rate schools based on the academic progress students achieve. In spirited testimony throughout the evening, there was a nearly universal call for increasing the emphasis on student progress and including a measure of growth in the new plan.
The OSSE straw man draft gives equal weight to proficiency and growth. The SBOE has written in its response that giving equal weight to proficiency and growth is “unfair in principle and unhelpful in practice. Schools that enroll lower scoring students—on average, students who are poorer, don’t speak English, and are in special education—have to be many times more effective than their counterparts to earn an equivalent rating…. In effect, under the current and currently proposed system, “when students begin their year at a low score, the school is in effect penalized for not raising the child multiple grade levels.
Safety, Engagement and Environment Indicators: The SBOE believes that it is important for all students, teachers and parents to feel welcome, safe, and engaged in their school—all qualities that research says directly influence achievement. This relates to many factors including facilities, school discipline, attendance, bullying, parent engagement, teacher turnover, and student reenrollment. Policy experts testified to the need for a climate survey that is research-based. The goal would be to measure the aspects of safety, engagement and environment that predict achievement. When we focus primarily on test scores, we lead schools to overly focus on test prep and the two tested subjects rather than a well-rounded education.
SBOE Public Meeting Information on ESSA
During the March SBOE Public Meeting, the Board heard from three ESSA experts. Watch their discussion on best ESSA practices here.
During the June SBOE Public Meeting, the Board heard testimony related to school quality and student success. Watch the discussion here.
During the July SBOE Public Meeting, the Board heard testimony related to the potential impact of ESSA on vulnerable students. Watch the discussion here.
During the September SBOE Public Meeting, the Board heard testimony related to state leadership and implementation challenges. Watch the discussion here.
During the October SBOE Public Meeting, the Board heard testimony related to a Parent Summit that includes ESSA related sessions. Watch the discussion here.
During the December SBOE Public Meeting, three ESSA policy experts, a charter school Vice President of Policy, and a Ward 5 charter school parent provided testimony to the Board. Watch the discussion here.
During the January SBOE Public Meeting, the Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE) provided an overview of the major components of the consolidated statewide plan required by ESSA. In addition to school accountability, the consolidated plan includes sections on long-term goals, consultation and performance management, academic assessments, and supporting educators and students. Watch the discussion here.
by Nancy Andrews for Connecticut Education Association
Connecticut teachers are urging legislators to take up the critical issue of education funding when they convene for a special session later this month to focus on the draconian cuts devastating the state’s public schools and shortchanging students’ education.
“While we appreciate legislators standing up for our senior citizens, our youngest and most vulnerable citizens are also facing peril with continued school funding cuts that must be addressed,” said CEA President Sheila Cohen. “The time for action is now. Our children can’t wait until next February. Legislators must take up the issue in special session.”
Governor Malloy recently cut an additional $58 million in ECS funding, and more cuts are planned in 2018. As Connecticut’s cities and towns struggle to make up these costs, many are planning to cut school resources, eliminate educational programs, and lay off teachers.
“These funding cuts are creating chaos in our schools and causing disruptions for students, parents, teachers, and communities in the middle of the school year,” said Cohen. “Every day our teachers are being asked to do more with less, and every day our students are being shortchanged by cuts in education funding. Education funding is being strangled in a budget nightmare that has created an economic crisis in our schools.”
Hundreds of teachers have also reached out to legislators. In phone calls and emails, teachers are asking legislators to do the right thing and protect Connecticut’s children.
Cohen stressed, “Without providing critical funding, the state is irreversibly jeopardizing the future of Connecticut’s students and the future of our state. Our children and our public schools are too important to cast aside and just hope for the best. We need to support the education of our children.”
Many years ago when I was teaching middle grade students, I had a daily activity I called ‘banned word of the day.’ I used words such as “interesting,” “like,” “nice,” and, “cool.” I would write the word on the chalkboard, draw a circle around the word, and draw a line through it. Doing that signaled to my students that they could not use that word that day. I was tired of reading book reports that described each and every book as “interesting” and wanted to push my students to expand their vocabularies. The students made a game out of the activity and listened carefully to each other, waiting for someone to slip up. Several times a day I would hear someone shout out, “Oooh, Mrs. Billings, she said ‘interesting.'” The students and I had a great time with these banned words of the day.
However, one day one of my bright students in the urban school in which I taught said, “Mrs. Billings I don’t think ‘banned word of the day’ is right.” When I asked why, he replied, “You’re teaching us U.S. history and all about the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and I think ‘banned word of the day’ is a violation of my right of free speech!” His statement produced a big smile on my face. Here was a student who was actually putting school knowledge to practical use. He was right. As much as I would like for students to use more expressive and expansive vocabularies, they had a right to use any words in school, as long as they were not obscene, racist, sexist, or homophobic.
Now, we learn that the Trump administration is considering banning certain words. According to The Washington Post, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been prohibited by the current administration from using a list of words in any of its official budgetary documents for the coming year. Those words are “diversity,” “transgender,” “vulnerable,” “fetus,” “evidence-based,” “science-based,” and “entitlement.” This choice of banned words reflects, not an attempt to expand the officials’ vocabularies, but rather an attempt to choreograph the science and funding landscape to prohibit certain types of research. If you cannot say “diversity,” then how can you fund projects focused on diversity?
Read the full story here: May require an Education Week subscription.
Cincinnati Public Schools projects its enrollment will continue to slightly increase to an estimated 35,544 students in 2018-19, its highest enrollment since 2005-06. Since 2013, the district has gained 2,543 students.
The final tax bill that Congress will soon vote on maintains the $250 tax deduction that teachers can use for classroom supplies—and yet teachers’ unions are finding little consolation in a legislative overhaul they say hurts working families.
SUMMARY: In accordance with section 5005 of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the Secretary seeks information from the public regarding actions the Department of Education (Department) can take to improve how it considers the unique needs of rural schools and local educational agencies (LEAs) as it develops and implements its policies and programs. The Secretary intends to use this information in issuing a final report, required under section 5005, describing the actions it will take to increase the consideration and participation of rural schools and LEAs in the development and execution of the Department’s processes, procedures, policies, and regulations. (
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By Ramona Edelin Special to the AFRO
