by Alyson Klein | Jul 18, 2017 | Betsy DeVos, Connecticut, Delaware, Education Week, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Michigan, Tennessee
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ home state education chief thinks her department is sending some conflicting signals when it comes to the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Brian J. Whiston, the state superintendent, said the message he’s heard from DeVos has been all about state leadership and leeway.
But he got a very different sound bite from Jason Botel, the acting assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education. Botel called the state earlier this month to talk about what the department sees as missing from its ESSA plan, in advance of an official feedback letter…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
by Andrew Ujifusa | Jul 17, 2017 | Betsy DeVos, Education Week, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), National, North Carolina, Tennessee
On Tuesday, the House education committee will hold a hearing on how the Every Student Succeeds Act is unfolding in states and districts. On this general issue, much of the focus (rightly) has been on how Republicans like Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the Senate education committee chairman, are reacting to what U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her team are doing on ESSA oversight. Importantly, Alexander isn’t happy, and says the department seems to be ignoring the law.
And a GOP aide said Monday that Rep. Virginia Foxx., R-N.C., the chairwoman of the House committee, has put DeVos’ department “on notice” about concerns lawmakers have as far as federal feedback to states’ plans. “Department of Education overreach will play a role in the hearing, not just [coming] from the chairwoman but from other members,” the GOP aide said…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
by NNPA ESSA | Jul 17, 2017 | ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), K12 Education, Tennessee
Download (PDF, 7.36MB)
by Alyson Klein | Jul 9, 2017 | Betsy DeVos, Connecticut, Delaware, Education Week, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Illinois, K12 Education, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont
There’s been a ton of confusion lately about whether and how states can incorporate science, social studies, and other subjects into their systems for rating schools under the Every Student Succeeds Act.
The upshot is that, yes, states can indeed use science, social studies, the arts, and other subjects beyond reading and math for accountability. But there are some caveats when it comes to just how they do that. (More below.)
First, some background: U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos got pushback last month when her team told four of the 17 states that have submitted ESSA plans so far Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, and Tennessee that their vision for incorporating science into their accountability plans didn’t pass muster. Advocates for science teachers sent DeVos’ team an angry letter, saying they thought this was a poor policy choice...
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
by Andrew Ujifusa | Jul 4, 2017 | Betsy DeVos, Education Week, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Indiana, K12 Education, National, Tennessee
A bill to reauthorize the federal career and technical education law is so popular that it recently got unanimous approval from House lawmakers. Is there any other big K-12 bill that will get the same kind of love? Don’t bet on it.
That doesn’t mean federal lawmakers don’t have a “honey-do” list when it comes to education policy. True, the Every Student Succeeds Act covers a lot of the ground when it comes to public schools. (We’re still watching for when #FixESSA starts trending on Twitter, however.) But we’ve put together a list of policy issues that the 115th Congress could address, at least in theory. Scroll down to see them in detail, or click a policy issue in the menu below to jump to that one.
Budget
Higher Education
School Choice
Student-Data Privacy
Education Research
Career and Technical Education
Juvenile Justice
- Budget: It might be the thing Congress tackles first on this list. Remember, the current budget deal only runs through Sept. 30…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
by Alyson Klein | Jul 4, 2017 | Arizona, Education Week, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), K12 Education, Michigan, National, New Mexico, Tennessee
Most states are using the Every Student Succeeds Act as an opportunity to measure student growth, not just straight-up performance on tests. And states are broadening their accountability systems to include factors beyond reading and math to comply with a requirement in the law, with many choosing to rate schools in part on whether or not they prepare kids for college and the workplace, according to a review of state plans commissioned by the Collaborative for Student Success and Bellwether Education Partners. The review is aimed in part at helping to pinpoint promising practices in state plans so that states can learn from one another.
The 30 experts including former state chiefs, policy wonks, and civil rights advocates who reviewed plans for Bellwether and the Collaborative also found that five of the 17 states who have submitted ESSA plans so far considered the performance of historically overlooked groups of students in school ratings.
And they found that, with the exception of New Mexico and Tennessee, states aren’t doing a great job of explaining how they plan to intervene in low-performing schools. In fact, the review gave New Mexico whose state chief, Hannna Skandera, departed after the plan was submitted high marks overall. But reviewers found that states such as Arizona and Michigan were lacking in information…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
by Alyson Klein | Jul 1, 2017 | Betsy DeVos, Connecticut, Delaware, Education Week, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee
Connecticut, Louisiana, New Jersey, Oregon, and Tennessee got preliminary feedback Friday from the U.S. Department of Education on their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act, which must be approved by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
The department’s initial ESSA feedback letters to Delaware, Nevada, and New Mexico sparked wonky outrage, including from state advocates who felt the department had overstepped its bounds. Some of the department’s comments, especially on academic goals and measuring college and career readiness, seemed like a sharp departure from DeVos’ rhetoric, which put a big emphasis on local control and rolling back the federal footprint on K-12.
So will this round of feedback give fans of local control another case of heartburn? From our quick review, that seems less likely. (But we’ve reached out to some state advocates for their take.) Noteably, though, the department isn’t questioning whether any state has set “ambitious” goals, as it did with Delaware’s plan. And it doesn’t seem to have a problem with the way Louisiana and Tennessee have relied on Advanced Placement and dual enrollment to determine school ratings, even though that too, was an issue for Delaware. Scroll down for more detail…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
by NNPA ESSA | Jun 19, 2017 | Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, K12 Education, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, National, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, No Child Left Behind, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
By: Michelle Croft and Richard Lee
ACT Research and Policy
Despite (or because of) the federal requirement that all students in certain grades participate in statewide achievement testing, stories of parents opting their student out of the testing gained national attention in the media in the spring of 2015. Ultimately, twelve states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin—received a notice from the U.S. Department of Education that they needed to create a plan to reduce opt-outs due to low participation rates.
When statewide testing came in spring 2016, there were more stories of opt-outs, and information about districts failing to meet participation requirements will follow in the coming months.3 Early reports from New York indicate that 21% of students in grades 3–8 opted out in 2016, which was slightly more than the prior year. (See attached PDF below for reference information.)
Participation Rate Requirements
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (both the No Child Left Behind and the Every Student Succeeds authorizations) requires that all students annually participate in statewide achievement testing in mathematics and English in grades 3–8 and high school as well as science in certain grade spans. Ninety-five percent of students at the state, district, and school level must participate; otherwise there is a range of consequences.
Under the No Child Left Behind authorization, the school would automatically fail to meet Adequate Yearly Progress if the school—or subgroups of students within the school—did not meet the participation rate requirement. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides states with greater flexibility to determine how to incorporate the participation rate into the state’s accountability system. However, in proposed regulations, the state will need to take certain actions such as lowering the school’s rating in the state’s accountability system or identifying the school for targeted support or improvement, if all students or one or more student subgroups do not meet the 95% participation rate.
Michelle Croft is a principal research associate in Public Affairs at ACT. Richard Lee is a senior analyst in Public Affairs at ACT.
Email research.policy@act.org for more information. © 2016 by ACT, Inc. All rights reserved. MS489
http://www.org/policy-advocacy
Download (PDF, 368KB)
by NNPA ESSA | Jun 18, 2017 | Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, K12 Education, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, National, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Emily Parker, Bruce Atchison and Emily Workman
Education Commission of the States
This report highlights significant investments made by both Republican and Democratic policymakers in state-funded pre-k programs for the fourth year in a row. In the 2015-16 budget year, 32 states and the District of Columbia raised funding levels of pre-k programs. This increased support for preschool funding came from both sides of the aisle–22 states with Republican governors and 10 states with Democratic governors, plus the District of Columbia.
In contrast, only five states with Republican governors and three states with Democratic governors decreased their pre-k funding.
Overall, state funding of pre-k programs across the 50 states and the District of Columbia increased by nearly $755 million, or 12 percent over 2014-15. While this progress is promising, there is still work to be done to set children on the path to academic success early in life. Still, less than half of preschool-aged students have access to pre-k programs.
Increasing the number of students in high-quality preschool programs is broadly viewed as a way to set young learners on a path to a secure economic future and stable workforce. This report includes several state examples and an overview of the pre-k programs they have in place. Data tables on total state pre-K funding and state pre-kindergarten funding by program are appended. [Megan Carolan contributed to this publication.]
Download (PDF, 1.13MB)
Education Commission of the States. ECS Distribution Center, 700 Broadway Suite 1200, Denver, CO 80203-3460. Tel: 303-299-3692; Fax: 303-296-8332; e-mail: ecs@ecs.org; Web site: http://www.ecs.org
by Andrew Ujifusa | Jun 1, 2017 | Education Week, ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), K12 Education, Tennessee
Washington — Plans to expand school choice from President Donald Trump may be generating a lot of attention but they should be taken with a dose of political reality, and not obscure other key issues.
That was one of the main messages from a panel of K-12 advocates discussing the changing politics of education at the annual conference of the Education Writers Association here on Wednesday. Left- and right-leaning advocates sparred about the hypothetical impact of $9.2 billion in cuts to the U.S. Department of Education proposed by Trump last week, and whether the Republican-controlled Congress is interested in the GOP president’s pitch for a $1.4 billion school choice initiative.
There was a general consensus, however, that in the age of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, education reporters would do well to see how or if national debates impact things such as school choice and spending in states and local communities. After all, only about 10 percent of funding for public schools comes from the federal government…
Read the full article here. May require an Education Week subscription.
