by Andrew Ujifusa | Apr 25, 2017 | District of Columbia, Education Week, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Massachusetts, National
Roughly a quarter of states have turned in their accountability plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act. Having trouble keeping track of all the ins and outs of each state’s plan? We’ve got you covered.
So far, 12 states and the District of Columbia have informed the U.S. Department of Education about their long-term academic goals, the weight that various indicators will have in their proposed accountability systems, and how schools will be rated under ESSA. There’s a lot of variety in those states’ goals, indicators, and rating systems.
However, it’s worth noting that the Education Department has already informed two states, Maine and Massachusetts, that the plans they submitted are incomplete. That’s an early indication that the department might not be afraid to call states out about omissions or other issues in those plans.
Without further ado, here’s that handy ESSA plan chart in PDF form. Bookmark it, print it out, hang it on your wall, we hope it’s useful.
Download (PDF, 144KB)
Source: Education Week Politics K-12
by Alyson Klein | Apr 19, 2017 | Connecticut, Education Week, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Illinois, Massachusetts
UPDATED — Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, states get to decide what goals to set for student achievement, how to gauge schools’ academic progress and quality, and more. (Explainer on the law here.)
But in some of the 12 plans that have already been submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, elements are still to be determined. Some states didn’t completely spell out their student achievement goals. Others didn’t say exactly how much each individual factor would count toward schools’ overall ratings. And others proposed school quality indicators they didn’t fully explain. (Much of the up-in-the-air information concerned student achievement goals….
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
by Andrew Ujifusa | Apr 11, 2017 | Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Education Week, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, President Barack Obama, Tennessee, Vermont
One of the most closely watched issues in states’ Every Students Succeeds Act plans will be how they plan to assign ratings to schools. Thanks to several states that turned in their plans by the April 3 deadline, we have an early idea of where states on headed on this.
One important decision is whether to issue schools single, summative ratings (like an A-F school rating), or use a “dashboard” approach that displays how a school is doing on different indicators, but doesn’t give the school an ultimate rating.
You might remember that how to handle school ratings was one of the most contentious issues in the development of the now-discarded Obama ESSA accountability rules. The Obama Education Department initially wanted to require states to assign a single, summative rating to all schools. But Republicans in Congress and others objected, arguing that this was not a requirement in ESSA itself and was an unfair, onerous requirement…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
by Andrew Ujifusa | Apr 11, 2017 | Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Education Week, ESSA, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, President Barack Obama, Tennessee, Vermont
We’re not in NCLB land any more, Toto.
Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced the previous version of the nation’s main K-12 law, states have a lot of leeway in deciding what their long-term academic goals will be. That means that, unlike with the No Child Left Behind Act, there’s no requirement that all states ensure that 100 percent of students are proficient on state English/language arts and math exams by a certain school year. In the ESSA plans submitted to the U.S. Department of Education that we’ve seen so far, states have laid out a variety of long-term as well as interim goals, and a vastly different set of timelines with key dates ranging from next year all the way to 2039.
Read on to see what some of these long-term goals are in eight states and the District of Columbia. We’ve included some information about goals for graduation rates as well, but we’ve put aside English-language proficiency goals for now. Want to jump to a particular state or the District of Columbia? Just click on one of the links below:
One important note about Massachusetts: The state did not set out any academic goals in its ESSA plan. Read on or click on Massachusetts above for more info about that…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
by Alyson Klein | Apr 10, 2017 | Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Education Week, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, Tennessee, Vermont
One of the parts of the Every Student Succeeds Act that excited educators the most was the chance to look beyond test scores in gauging school performance, to factors like absenteeism, access to advanced coursework, and even grit.
So what kinds of factors are states using? We looked at the handful of plans that states have submitted to the feds and shared with us.
There are some common themes, at least among this first batch. For instance, chronic absenteeism is super popular. In fact, five states Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Tennessee are all using it in some fashion. (We will be updating this post periodically as more plans come in.)…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
by NNPA ESSA | Apr 5, 2017 | Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington
A number of states have released drafts of their ESSA plans. Here’s a compiled list of the most recent versions states have released so far.
Arizona: First Draft (9/7/16) Second Draft (11/9/16) Final Plan (1/15/17)
Colorado: First Draft (2/10/17)
Connecticut: Released plan (4/3/17)
Delaware: First Draft (11/1/16)
District of Columbia: Released Plan (4/3/17)
Hawaii: First Draft (12/28/16) Released Plan (4/3/17)
Idaho: First Draft (11/2/16)
Iowa: First Draft (01/6/17)
Illinois: First Draft (9/7/16) Second Draft (11/18/16) Released Plan (4/3/17)
Kentucky: Partial Plan Released (11/1/16)
Louisiana: First Draft (9/28/16)
Massachusetts: Released Plan (4/3/17)
Maryland: First Draft (12/5/16)
Michigan: First Draft (2/14/17)
Montana: First Draft (11/19/16) Second Draft (12/15/16)
Nevada: Released Plan (4/3/17)
New Jersey: First Draft (2/15/17)
North Carolina: First Draft (9/30/16)
North Dakota: First Draft (1/13/17)
Ohio: Second Draft (2/2/17)
Oklahoma: First Draft (11/21/16)
Tennessee: First Draft (12/19/16) Released Plan (4/3/17)
Vermont: Released Plan (4/3/17)
Washington: First Draft (9/30/16) Second Draft (11/16/16)
Source: Understanding ESSA
by Alyson Klein | Feb 14, 2017 | Alaska, California, Connecticut, Education Week, Every Student Succeeds Act, k-12, Massachusetts, Michigan, Vermont
It’s finally happening: Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Education, is set to testify before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee at her confirmation hearing Tuesday.
In the past, confirmation hearings for an education secretary have typically been bipartisan love fests. But that’s not going to be the case this time around.
DeVos’ background as a voucher supporter who has never worked in a government, in a school district, or attended or sent her kids to public school has generated big backlash from educators and civil rights groups. In fact, 38 groups who don’t always see eye-to-eye on K-12 issues—including Democrats for Education Reform and the teachers’ unions—sent a letter Tuesday to Senate education committee leaders expressing big concerns about DeVos’ background and support for vouchers…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
by Alyson Klein | Feb 14, 2017 | Arizona, Delaware, District of Columbia, Education Week, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Trump Administration, US Department of Education, Vermont
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have told the U.S. Department of Education that they are aiming to file their plans for implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act by early April, in time for the first deadline set by the Obama administration.
Those states are Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont, plus the District of Columbia.
States have spent the past year reaching out to educators and advocates to decide how to handle everything from teacher effectiveness to school ratings to that brand new indicator of student success and school quality…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
by NNPA ESSA | Dec 30, 2016 | Education Week, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Massachusetts, National, Nevada, New Hampshire, No Child Left Behind, US Department of Education
(Originally published December 30, 2016)
With just months to go until the nation’s overhauled K-12 law goes into effect, state policymakers are still scrambling to firm up the infrastructure for their education systems, under the new blueprint laid out in the Every Student Succeeds Act.
They’re doing it at a time of political change and policy uncertainty at the national level, with a new team taking the field at the White House—and at the U.S. Department of Education—that may have its own ideas about how details of the new law play out on the ground.
There’s plenty about ESSA that remains familiar from the No Child Left Behind Act, the previous version of the half-century-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act. That includes mandatory state testing at certain grade levels, tagging and intervening in low-performing schools, and federal sign-off on state accountability plans…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
