The Commonwealth Education Blueprint is a multiyear effort founded and managed by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) to develop and implement a statewide vision for the future of public education. Through this comprehensive project, education stakeholders from across the state and from many areas of expertise collaborate to proactively determine what education should look like in years to come.
VISION:
Pennsylvania will provide an equitable, exceptional public education that empowers all learners to achieve a meaningful, productive life in our democratic society.
The Process & Your Involvement
The project steering committee conducts meetings and collects data (ongoing since Oct. 2017) toward drafting the Blueprint. They have also been convening Blueprint study groups, focus groups and, now a statewide survey.
Your involvement is critical to the Blueprint’s success! We hope you will participate in this short surveyto build the foundation for public education in the future. Please complete it by May 31, 2018: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/edblueprintpa
What’s Next?
After all of the data has been compiled and analyzed, a comprehensive report will be and will serve as the driving document to set and benchmark milestones toward achieving the vision and shaping all future education-related legislation and advocacy. We hope you will join us in distributing the Blueprint and this vision later in 2018.
For more information about the Commonwealth Education Blueprint, contact Ashley Lenker White, senior director of strategic initiatives, at (800) 932-0588 or ashley.white@psba.org.
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.
The Red Bank Charter School, one of New Jersey’s longest running, occupies an old home joined with a former elementary school building. Its brightly decorated classrooms are filled with a mix of faces: white, Hispanic, and black students, dressed in navy blue and khaki.
“What makes the school special is, we are integrated. That’s hard to do,” said Meredith Pennotti, the charter school’s principal.
Critics see it differently. By competing for students in Red Bank, the charter school has been accused of contributing to segregation of the Monmouth County borough’s traditional public schools, where 82 percent of elementary and middle-school students are Hispanic, compared with 44 percent in the charter.
PDE Announces ESSA Consolidated State Plan Draft Now Available for Public Comment
Harrisburg, PA – State Education Secretary Pedro A. Rivera today announced the commonwealth’s proposed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Consolidated State Plan is on the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s (PDE) website and is available for public comment. The plan builds on an 18-month collaboration between PDE and a diverse group of stakeholders from around the state.
“The Wolf Administration, through its Schools That Teach initiative, has been focused on ensuring that all students, regardless of their age, socioeconomic status, or zip code, have access to high-quality educators and schools,” said Secretary Rivera. “Pennsylvania’s ESSA Consolidated State Plan accelerates state-level priorities in these same areas, and helps the state transition from the prescriptive policies and unintended consequences of NCLB to a more student-centered approach.”
To develop the ESSA Consolidated State Plan, PDE:
Assembled four work groups – comprised of teachers, charter school and district level administrators, advocates, civil rights leaders, former policymakers from both parties, and others – to study key aspects of the law and develop framework recommendations;
Commissioned an independent study to examine work group recommendations in the context of academic literature and other evidence;
Testified before the House and Senate Education committees and worked with lawmakers to address plan components;
Held six dedicated town halls in every region of the commonwealth to gather additional stakeholder feedback;
Participated in approximately 30 statewide conferences, professional association meetings, and other forums to reach more than 2,000 Pennsylvanians and present on the state’s ESSA planning and early implementation; and
Consulted with national nonpartisan policy and technical experts (American Institutes for Research, Council of Chief State School Officers, Education Commission of the States) to solicit additional insight, feedback, and suggestions for specific plan components.
Rivera noted that the plan also presents new opportunities for the commonwealth to develop, recruit, and retain a talented and diverse pool of educators, bolsters college and career readiness and effective transition strategies throughout the pre-K to postsecondary continuum, and focuses on student and school equity.
Additionally, the development of the Future Ready PA Index, a new, public-facing school report card that expands the indicators used to measure performance, extends the comprehensive approach to ensuring student and school success. The Index will place additional emphasis on academic growth, evaluation of school climate through a robust chronic absenteeism measure, attention to both four-year and extended-year graduation rates, and assessments of postsecondary readiness.
“The plan represents a collaborative, evidence-based approach to help every student, in every Pennsylvania public school, access a high-quality, well-rounded education,” said Secretary Rivera. “That collaboration continues as we invite stakeholders and members of the public to provide feedback on Pennsylvania’s Consolidated State Plan.”
Rivera added that public comment will close on September 2, and the Department will submit its Consolidated State Plan to the U.S. Department of Education on September 18. Initial implementation of the plan will begin in the 2017-18 school year, with full rollout by 2018-19.
For more information about Pennsylvania’s education policies and programs, or to read the ESSA Consolidated State Plan, visit the Department of Education’s website at www.education.pa.gov or follow PDE on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.
Welcome to the ESSA Toolkit for Principals
