Bear River Region AM STEM wins 2018 Utah Excellence in Action Award
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah State Board of Education Career and Technical Education (CTE) section announced that the Bear River Region is the winner of the 2018 Utah Excellence in Action award. The AM STEM (Automated Manufacturing STEM) program in Bear River Region was selected based on their uniquely inventive and effective approaches to stimulating student learning, offering extensive work- based learning experiences, maintaining strong partnerships with industry and community organizations, and preparing students for postsecondary and career success.
The AM STEM program represents the best CTE program in the state of Utah. While the program is unique, it offers a rigorous sequence of courses beginning with foundational skills to subject-matter, real-world hands-on experiences in the classroom led by dedicated educators, and meaningful work- based experiences facilitated by industry partners.
Bear River Region, in collaboration with industry partners, higher education, and secondary education, has created a career pipeline for high school students by offering a program that meets industry needs. Students involved in the program take courses at their high school that align with the requirements found in industry. The AM STEM program combines coursework with work-based learning experiences to support student exploration and skill development.
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Utah State Board of Education Meeting Agendas: June 7 – 8, 2018
Highlights of this month’s Board meeting include: The Utah State Board of Education will meet on Thursday, June 7 beginning at 8 a.m. The Board will hold Finance Committee, Law and Legislation Committee, and Standards and Assessment Committee meetings on Friday, June 8 beginning at 9 a.m. The Board will also meet as the Governing Board of the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind on Friday, June 8 at 12:30 p.m. and meet in a study session that same day at 1:45 p.m. All meetings will be held the Board’s office, 250 E 500 South, Salt Lake City.
- Consideration of a contract with Pearson for a hybrid statewide test for grades 9-10 that combines items from ACT Aspire and SAGE.
- Review of the state’s grades 3-8 statewide test changes.
- Consideration of next steps following the U.S. Department of Education rejection of Utah’s Every Student Succeeds Act waiver request.
- Consideration of a proposal to move forward with a statewide school safety plan.
- View the complete agendas here.
Betsy DeVos Loves School Choice. But You Don’t See Much of It in ESSA Plans
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is a big cheerleader for school choice. And way before she came into office, states around the country were adopting tax-credit scholarships, education savings accounts, and more.
So has all that translated into a big bonanza for school choice in states’ Every Student Succeeds Act plans? Not really.
To be sure, ESSA isn’t a school choice law. School choice fans in Congress weren’t able to persuade their colleagues to include Title I portability in the law, which would have allowed federal funding to follow students to the public school of their choice.
However, the law does has some limited avenues for states to champion various types of school choice options. But only a handful of states are taking advantage of those opportunities, according to reviews of the plans by Education Week and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
School Improvement: At least 12 states say they want schools that are perennially low-performing to consider reopening as charter schools to boost student achievement. Those states are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.
Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.
UTAH — State Board of Education Meeting Summary: Feb. 1, 2018
February 1, 2018
In its February 1, 2018 meeting the Utah State Board of Education:
- Voted to seek a waiver from the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provision that requires states to count non-tested students as zeros for school accountability purposes.
- Voted to seek additional funding to provide teacher training on restorative justice.
- Reviewed the state’s first Kindergarten Entry and Exit Profile (KEEP) report showing kindergarten student literacy and numeracy readiness.
The USBE Finance, Law and Licensing, and Standards and Assessment standing committees will meet on Friday, February 2, 2018.
- Meeting agendas can be found on BoardDocs.
- Committee items approved Friday will be heard by the full Board during its March 15, 2018 meeting.
- Those who wish to comment on pending administrative rules or rule changes or existing rules are invited to contact us via e-mail at rule.comments@schools.utah.gov.
Click here for Board Member contact information.
View the full summary online at https://schools.utah.gov/board/utah/meetings under the “Meeting Summary” tab.
Inside the ESSA Plans: What Are States Doing About Goals and Timelines?
By Stephen Sawchuk, Alyson Klein, and Andrew Ujifusa
EDUCATION WEEK — This week, Education Week is bringing its trademark analysis to the remaining state plans for fulfilling requirements of the Every Student Succeeds law. On Monday, we had a look at the states’ proposed “school quality” indicators, the required but nonacademic portion of each state’s plan to judge schools. Today, we’re going to take a look at states’ goals for raising student achievement and their timelines for doing so in the plans awaiting federal approval.
One thing we’ll keep stressing again and again this week: how far federal policy has moved since the days of the No Child Left Behind Act (ESSA’s predecessor). Read on.
So, what kinds of goals are states setting?
Some states chose fixed goals that aim for all students, and all subgroups of vulnerable students, such as those qualifying for subsidized school lunches or English-language learners, to reach the same target (such as 80 percent proficiency). What’s nice about this kind of goal is that it sets the same endpoint, making it easier to see over time how achievement gaps are expected to close. States in this category include: Arkansas, Hawaii, Kansas, Mississippi, (grades 3-8 only), Ohio, Minnesota, New York, Rhode island, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.
Source: Education Week Politics K-12
Betsy DeVos Team Critiques ESSA Plans for Georgia, Utah, and Puerto Rico
Georgia and Utah, as well as hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, have some work to do on their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act, according letters published this week by the U.S. Department of Education. Each turned in its ESSA plan back in September. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her team are just beginning to respond to state plans. (Maryland is the only other state that submitted this fall to receive feedback.)
Here’s a quick look at some of the issues the department sited in each plan. Click on the state name to read the full letter from the feds.
Georgia has proposed looking at whether schools are able to close achievement gaps as part of its academic achievement indicator. The department says that gap-closing can’t be used there, although it can figure in elsewhere in the state’s accountability system.
The Peach State has listed nine indicators of school quality or student success, but it hasn’t sufficiently explained how they would be measured, or how they will differentiate among schools, the department says.
Georgia needs to do a better job of explaining how much weight it is giving to different accountability indicators. ESSA says academic factors, like test scores, need to count for more than school quality indicators, like school climate. It’s not clear Georgia met that requirement, the feds say.
The state needs to provide more information to show that its plans for identifying low-performing schools and schools where certain groups of students are struggling meet ESSA’s requirements. And it needs to explain how it will ensure poor students get their fair share of effective teachers, the department says.
Where do state ESSA plans stand? Sixteen states and the District of Columbia submitted their ESSA plans this fall. So far, all but one of those states has been approved. (The exception is Colorado, which asked for more time to improve its plan.) Another 34 states submitted their plans earlier this fall. So far, Maryland is the only other state to receive feedback.
Keep track of state ESSA plans here.
Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.
Source: Education Week Politics K-12
What’s Up With ESSA Block Grant Funding?
Happy almost Thanksgiving, and welcome to the second installment of Answering Your ESSA Questions!
…on to our next question, which deals with ESSA funding. It comes from Sarah Boder, the director of policy & affiliate relations at the North American Association of Environmental Education.
Boder wants to know: “What’s the latest timeline for distribution of Title IVA funds to states? Are they able to receive funds as soon as their plans are approved? Do you have any sense of how many states will opt to administer those grants competitively, given the smaller appropriation?”
First off, what exactly is Title IV? And what does Boder mean by a “smaller appropriation”?
ESSA cut dozens of programs in the U.S. Department of Education and combined them into one giant block grant districts can use for everything from safety and health programs to arts education to Advanced Placement course fees. The program was supposed to get about $1.6 million annually, but Congress only provided $400 million for fiscal 2017. To help districts get more bang for their buck, lawmakers gave states the option to compete out the funds. They could also choose to dole them out by formula, with the goal of giving each district at least $10,000…
Read the full article here:
Budget Tangles Ensnare Key Early-Childhood Programs – Education Week
October 10, 2017
Congress is late in turning in two important assignments that affect young children: Both the Children’s Health Insurance Program and a federally funded program that provides counseling to vulnerable families expired Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.
Neither program will run out of money immediately, and both programs have support from Republicans and Democrats. But the expiration, even if it proves temporary, illustrates how difficult it has been for Congress to address other legislation as it has wrestled, unsuccessfully, with repealing the Affordable Care Act.
The highest-profile of the two programs to expire is the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which Congress failed to extend by the end of September, could put a financial strain on states—and eventually jeopardize coverage for the roughly 9 million children covered by the program…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
FULL COMMITTEE HEARING — The Every Student Succeeds Act: Unleashing State Innovation
Date: Tuesday, October 3, 2017
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Time: 10:00 AM
Location: 430 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Visit the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions for live video of this hearing.
Committee Membership
REPUBLICANS BY RANK
- Lamar Alexander (TN)
- Michael B. Enzi (WY)
- Richard Burr (NC)
- Johnny Isakson (GA)
- Rand Paul (KY)
- Susan Collins (ME)
- Bill Cassidy, M.D. (LA)
- Todd Young (IN)
- Orrin Hatch (UT)
- Pat Roberts (KS)
- Lisa Murkowski (AK)
- Tim Scott (SC)