On December 10, 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law by President Obama. This bipartisan measure reauthorized the 50-year-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the nation’s national education law. The New York State Education Department has established an ESSA Think Tank that will assist the New York State Education Department (NYSED or “the Department”) with development of New York’s ESSA state plan, which we anticipate that the Department will be required to submit to the United States Department of Education (USDE) in early 2017.
ESSA retains many of the core provisions of No Child Left Behind (the previous reauthorization of ESEA) related to standards, assessments, accountability, and use of Federal funds. However, ESSA does provide states with much greater flexibility in many areas, including the methodologies for differentiating the performance of schools and the supports and interventions to provide when schools are in need of improvement. To meet the requirements of ESSA, New York will also be required to submit a new state plan to USDE for the use of a wide array of Federal grant programs, including Title IA (Improving Basic Programs Operated by Local Educational Agencies, Title IB (State Assessment Grants, Title IC (Education of Migratory Children), Title ID (Prevention and Intervention Programs for Children and Youth who are Neglected, Delinquent or At-Risk), Title IIA (Supporting Effective Instruction), Title III (Supporting Language Instruction for English Learners and Immigrant Students), Title IVA (Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants), Title VB (Rural Education Initiative), and Title VI (Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native Education).
On May 26, 2016, the United States Department of Education (USDE) released draft regulations outlining state requirements for submission of a state accountability plan, and for implementing the provisions of the ESSA, which can be found at: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/05/31/2016-12451/elementary-and-secondary-education-act-of-1965-as-amended-by-the-every-student-succeeds.
Board of Regents Items on ESSA
October 2016
July 2016
May 2016
ESSA Law
USDE Proposed Regulations on ESSA (Draft Non-negotiated Rulemaking)
USDE Draft Rulemaking for Title I Supplement Not Supplant
- USDE Draft Rulemaking for Title I Supplement Not Supplant
- NYSED Webinar on Draft Rulemaking for Title I Supplement Not Supplant (Recording)
- NYSED Webinar Presentation on Draft Rulemaking for Title I Supplement Not Supplant
New York’s Public Comment Letters to USDE
- NYSED Letter to USDE on Notice of Proposed Rulemaking – Comments on Title I-Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged-Supplement Not Supplant – Posted November 7, 2016
- NYSED Letter to USDE on ESSA Proposed Regulations Changes – Comments on Title I Academic Assessments – Posted September 9, 2016
- NYSED Letter to USDE on ESSA Proposed Regulations Changes – Comments on Accountability, Data Reporting, and State Plans – Posted August 1, 2016
Resources
- New Opportunities to Support Student Health under ESSA
- NPRM on ESSA Accountability, Report Cards, and State Plans
- Presentation made by Commissioner Elia to the Board of Regents in October on the ESSA Regional meetings
- Presentation made by Linda Darling Hammond to the Board of Regents in October on ESSA and Equity
- Presentation made by Michael Cohen to the Board of Regents in October on ESSA and College- and Career-Readiness
- USDE’s recently released non-regulatory guidance on Equitable Services.
- Louisiana’s ESSA Framework
- National Council for Measurement in Education’s Position Statement on Student Participation in State Assessments (Note: The Council is accepting comments from its members on the statement through 12/10/2016).
- Center for Standards and Assessment Report: Review of State Accountability Systems that Also Include a Growth Model
- Center for Standards and Assessment Report: School Quality Indicators Scan
- An additional resource – Student Growth Simulator
Draft Guiding Principles
Draft Characteristics of Highly Effective Schools
High Concept Ideas
High Concept Idea Summaries
- Support and Improvements for Schools
- Accountability Measurements and Methodology
- Challenging Academic Standards and Assessments
- Supporting All Students
- Supporting Excellent Educators
- Supporting English Language Learners/Multilingual Learners
Webinars
ESSA Orientation
- ESSA Orientation (Recording)
- ESSA Orientation (Presentation)
ESSA State Plan Development Regional Meetings – Logistics
- ESSA State Plan Development Regional Meetings – Logistics (Recording)
- ESSA State Plan Development Regional Meetings – Logistics (Power Point Presentation)
ESSA State Plan Development Regional Meetings – Overview of High Concept Ideas
ESSA State Plan Development Regional Meetings – Overview of High Concept Ideas (Power Point Presentations)
- ESSA State Plan Development Regional Meetings – High Concept Ideas For Meetings With Talking Points
- ESSA State Plan Development Regional Meetings – High Concept Ideas For Meetings Without Talking Points
Mini Webinars
Challenging Academic Standards and Assessments
- Assessment of ELLs
- Participation
- Score Analysis
- Flexibility in Choice of Assessments (2 Minutes)
- Universal Design Learning
Supporting All Students
- Title I Schoolwide Programs (9 Minutes)
Supporting Excellent Educators
- Supporting Excellent Educators (10 Minutes)
Accountability Measurements and Methodology
- Advanced Coursework (3 Minutes)
- Closing the Gap (6 Minutes)
- Graduation Rate (5 Minutes)
- High School Four Year Cohort (4 Minutes)
- Identification Timeline (2 Minutes)
- Measuring Proficiency (4 Minutes)
- Other State Assessmentts for Accountability (2 Minutes)
- School Quality (5 Minutes)
- Student Acheivement, Progress and Growth (5 Minutes)
- Success Index (4 Minutes)
- Weigh Advanced (5 Minutes)
Supporting English Language Learners/Multilingual Learners
- English Language Learners /Multilingual Learners (13 Minutes)