It’s one of the most controversial questions about the Every Student Succeeds Act and accountability in general: How should schools be graded?
Since nearly all states have at least turned in their ESSA plans, and many ESSA plans have been approved, we now have a good idea of how states are answering those questions. Keep one thing in mind: ESSA requires certain low-performing schools to be identified as needing either targeted or comprehensive support. States have no wiggle room on that. But beyond that, states can assign things like A-F grades, stars, or points. Based on the states that have turned in their plans—and remember, not every state has—We did some good old-fashioned counting and came to the following conclusions, in chart form:
Here are a few notes about that chart.
1) Many states use some kind of points system only as a starting point, since they then use those systems to arrive at final grades or scores that are presented differently to the public…
I am pleased to advise that Pennsylvania has submitted its proposed ESSA Consolidated State Plan to the U.S. Department of Education. A copy of the plan may be viewed on the Department’s ESSA webpage. We have also posted a PowerPoint presentation in both English and Spanish to assist Pennsylvanians in understanding the plan. In addition, the Department has revised its ESSA webpage to include updated content on major elements of the plan, as well as a new section on Stakeholder Engagement. This page includes access to all stakeholder comments submitted to the Department during the formal 30-day public comment period. Please stay tuned for additional resources and updates in the weeks ahead.
Submission of Pennsylvania’s Consolidated State Plan is a significant moment for public education in Pennsylvania. The plan underscores the commonwealth’s commitment to creating more balanced and comprehensive school progress measures, reducing testing time, and supporting Pennsylvania’s educators and school leaders.
Highlights of the plan include:
A focus on providing a “well-rounded education” to students, by identifying the subjects and disciplines that should be part of every child’s education, including the arts, social sciences, health and physical education, STEM and computer science, and other areas;
Broadening the scope of the indicators used to measure school success;
A reduction of testing time on the Pennsylvania State System of Assessments (PSSAs) in English language arts and mathematics by 20 percent beginning in spring 2018;
Strategies for addressing the needs of students through school-based supports and community partnerships;
A strong focus on evidence-based professional development for educators and administrators that emphasizes equity; and
Identifying ways to prepare students to successfully enter postsecondary, career programs, apprenticeship programs, or even the workforce.
The Department is grateful to the thousands of Pennsylvanians who participated in review and comment on plan proposals since ESSA was enacted in December 2015. We look forward to continuing these conversations through the USDE plan approval process and on to implementation in our schools and for the benefit of all of our students in Pennsylvania.
The plan, which was made public at 4:59 p.m. Monday, establishes what the department describes as “ambitious yet attainable” goals of raising student performance, increasing graduation rates and having English learners move toward achieving English language proficiency.
It responds to the oft-heard complaints about too much class time spent on testing by shortening the state exams that third through eighth graders take in English language arts and math.
It also establishes a new school report card that expands the indicators used to measure performance, placing less emphasis on state test scores which educators had sought. The indicators chosen include academic progress, graduation rates, English language proficiency, chronic absenteeism, and career exploration and preparation rates of fifth-, eighth- and 11th-graders.
“Pennsylvania’s ESSA Consolidated State Plan presented the department with an opportunity to shape education in the commonwealth for years to come, a charge we did not take lightly,” said state Education Secretary Pedro Rivera in a news release.
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.
This keynote address provided a high-level overview of major reauthorizations since the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It focused on the key priorities of the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), looking particularly at accountability systems, school improvement, teacher and leader quality, data collection and reporting, educational technology, and regulation. Maureen Wentworth, Director of the Education Data and Information Systems of the Council of Chief State School Officers, gave this address at the 2016 Pennsylvania Department of Education Data Summit.
The content of these videos does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Institute of Education Sciences or the U.S. Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
For decades, district leaders have been clamoring for more say over how they spend their federal money. And when the Every Student Succeeds Act passed back in 2015, it looked like they had finally gotten their wish: a brand-new $1.6 billion block grant that could be used for computer science initiatives, suicide prevention, new band instruments, and almost anything else that could improve students’ well-being or provide them with a well-rounded education.
But, for now at least, it looks like most district officials will only get a small sliver of the funding they had hoped for, putting the block grants’ effectiveness and future in doubt.
The Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, or Title IV of ESSA, only received about a quarter of the funding the law recommends, $400 million for the 2017-18 school year, when ESSA will be fully in place for the first time…
Last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Education released a draft of its plan to comply with the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Under the new law, states were given more leeway in how to set education policy and spend federal public school dollars. The most notable news within the report was the announcement that PDE plans to unveil a new school quality metric in 2018 that it believes will foster a more holistic student experience, one less narrowly focused on state standardized tests.
But within the 133 page report there were a few other noteworthy facts about Pennsylvania public schools that caught our attention.
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.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education will unveil a new school quality metric in 2018 — dubbed the Future Ready PA Index — that it believes will foster a more holistic student experience, one less narrowly focused on state standardized tests.
The change was announced Wednesday as part of PDE’s plan to comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). That is the flagship federal education law, updated under President Obama in 2015.
Under that law, states were given more leeway in how to set education policy and spend federal public school dollars.
“It’s provided Pennsylvania with a once in a decade opportunity to revisit our assessment, accountability, and student support systems, and make changes with greater autonomy than we’ve been able to do in the past,” said department deputy secretary Matthew Stem. “It’s really given us an opportunity to focus on more holistic supports and holistic instructional strategies.”
Pennsylvania will still have a strong, federally required commitment to standardized testing with scores broken down by subgroup, but Stem says the new plan will push schools to foster better critical thinking and collaboration skills.
Fighting hunger has long been a priority for our family.
Frances Wolf (Commonwealth of Pa. photo)
Tom and I have seen firsthand how hunger affects families and communities and we are personally committed to ending hunger in Pennsylvania.
For years, we have worked as volunteers in our local soup kitchen, York Daily Bread, as well as others across the commonwealth – and we have supported both those in need and the organizations serving them.
That’s why I have been passionately advocating for a very specific component of Tom’s 2017-18 budget proposal – a $2 million investment to enhance our school breakfast program and help more students have the start to the day that they need to be successful.
It simply breaks my heart that 1 in 5 children – over 520,000 – right here in our great state of Pennsylvania don’t always know where their next meal will come from.
And many of them show up to school in the morning with an empty stomach, not having eaten anything since the night before.
As you can imagine, many of them cannot focus on their studies, lack energy and struggle with behavioral problems.
This is nothing short of devastating – as a mother and as a Pennsylvanian. And, it has an enormous impact on our schools and our kids’ future.
Improving our schools, and ensuring that our children and educators have the resources they need to succeed has been my husband’s top priority as governor. Tom and his team have fought for improving education from preschool through higher education in Pennsylvania since day one.
And, thankfully, that fight has produced real results for our students. Working with the legislature, Tom has successfully secured historic increases in education funding over the last two years.
But even with great schools and teachers, kids who are hungry struggle to concentrate and perform well in school.
Ask any teacher and they’ll tell you that food is a basic school supply, just like textbooks and pencils. When kids struggle with hunger, it’s harder for them to learn.
This $2 million is a relatively small investment compared to other state government programs, but it will have an enormous return. This investment will help the commonwealth leverage up to $20 million dollars in federal funding.
We know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It impacts a variety of outcomes in our children. We don’t need the research to tell us this. We see it as parents and teachers – both in academic progress, as well as behavior and the number of visits to the school nurse every day.
I am passionate about this because expanding access to breakfast in our schools is a smart investment and one that I know will have a lasting impact on our students and on Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania’s greatest resource is our young people and the public schools that prepare them to be our future leaders. Our goal is to support them in this great endeavor by providing the resources and opportunities they need to make the most of their educational experiences and to help prepare them for a competitive job market.
When children start the day with the nutrition they need, it has long-lasting consequences for the entire state – they grow up smarter, healthier, and stronger – and that means a smarter, healthier, stronger Pennsylvania.
Frances Wolf is the First Lady of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She writes from Harrisburg.
The ESSA State Plan and related materials are now available on the PDE web site at 
