ESSA: A Roadmap for Achieving Equity in Education

ESSA: A Roadmap for Achieving Equity in Education

By Elizabeth Primas, NNPA ESSA Awareness Campaign Program Manager

States are in the driver’s seat when it comes to improving their struggling schools. But how can we make sure they’re not taking the “path of least resistance” when it comes to this important work, risking the academic prospects for students of color.

Building on the work done by Bellwether Education Partners, which conducted independent peer reviews of all 50 states’ and the District of Columbia’s ESSA plans that were required to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Education for approval, the Collaborative for Student Success analyzed plans to see which states are taking advantage of new-found flexibility regarding equity in education. The new report, Check State Plans: Promise to Practice, found that just 17 states met its threshold for even having enough public information to review. The report notes that the results are “sobering” in that “more than 9 million students attend schools that do not meet anyone’s standard for what is acceptable.” This is particularly acute for students of color and who come from low-income families.

The fact is, achievement gaps between white and black students exist. We see this time and again in the National Assessment of Education Progress as well as on individual states’ annual assessments. Students who attend inner city public schools tend to fare worse than their peers in suburban public schools. The gaps are even more pronounced when we look at private schools that draw privileged students away from city institutions. These racial divides segregate communities.

A report from the Young Invincibles examines these divides and developed three main findings: (1) minorities disproportionately enroll in for-profit and community colleges, which can condemn them to a vicious cycle of debt; (2) college costs hit minority students harder than their white peers; and (3) the achievement gap is racially divided. While 36.2 percent of white students completed four years of college in 2015, just 22.5 percent of black students could say the same, according to the analysis. While that’s much better than the 1974 numbers in which just 5.5 percent of black students finished four years of college compared to 14 percent of white students, that progress leaves little cheer.

State education chiefs and their in-state partners at teaching and research institutions plus educators on the front lines have a real chance to make a difference for black students and other minorities. But do they have the courage to make the necessary changes?

The Collaborative’s report is a good starting point, and it provides a roadmap written by education and policy leaders who are displaying the courage necessary to create bold plans that prioritize equity. Low-performing schools must be identified as such and be given real plans with real accountability measures to improve. There have to be consequences for students who don’t make the grade, but for too long, our education system as a whole has punished students by not giving them the tools they need to succeed. We have to look at the institutions and root out systemic problems.

As such, the Promise to Practice reviewers evaluated state plans based on a rubric that included whether the state has a coherent vision for improving student outcomes, whether there is a strategic use of funding and alignment of resources, the use of evidence-based interventions, and how well state leaders engaged stakeholders. That last component is perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of ESSA – federal lawmakers required states to gather input from a wide range of groups outside of traditional education. Civic groups, business leaders, parents and community activists were given a seat at the table.

We watched excitedly as several NAACP groups got involved from the very beginning, helping policy and lawmakers understand community and even neighborhood needs for the betterment of students. Still, it disheartening to learn that just 17 states are ready to identify and provide the kinds of supports that low-performing schools require. Other states can look at Colorado, which has developed a clear menu of school improvement items for districts to choose from, or Nevada where districts have to describe how their strategies for addressing equity gaps in funding applications. Nevada is also using equity-oriented data like behavior and attendance to understand schools’ challenges.

There’s so much anger and divisiveness in our society today, but the importance of education equity should be among the things on which we can all agree. Every single student in every single school, no matter where that school is located or what kind of home life the child has, must be given the tools and knowledge to succeed. We shouldn’t have to fight for this right – the right to an education. And yet we find ourselves year in, year out looking aghast at assessment scores that prove achievement gaps are still there. Thought-provoking analyses like that done by the Collaborative for Student Success will help close those gaps until they are well and truly gone.

Elizabeth Primas is an educator who spent more than 40 years working to improve education for children. She is the program manager for the NNPA’s Every Student Succeeds Act Public Awareness Campaign. Follow her on Twitter @elizabethprimas.

Analysis: Strong Incentives for Academic Progress in New York’s Early ESSA Plan, But Goals Could Be More Ambitious

Analysis: Strong Incentives for Academic Progress in New York’s Early ESSA Plan, But Goals Could Be More Ambitious

Alliance for Excellence in Education

Originally published August 28, 2017

While students are gearing up for the new school year, education leaders across the country have been hunkering down all summer to finish up their state education plans as part of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Sixteen states and the District of Columbia submitted their state plans to the U.S. Department of Education back in April, while the remaining 34 states will submit next month.

Among those states in the throes of ESSA planning, New York stands out for the size and diversity of its student population: The state has more than 2.6 million public school students, half of whom are students of color. New York also has been a national leader in engaging educators, parents and communities in improving education. In recent years, the state has done laudable work to refine its state standards and annual assessments improving education for all students—and notably, New York has excelled in involving stakeholders in that process. Recently, as state leaders have been developing their ESSA plan, they have put real effort into gathering input from communities—from Buffalo to Brooklyn—on what they want for their public schools.

With this strong educational groundwork laid, New York released its draft ESSA plan on July 31, about six weeks before the final plan is due to the U.S. Department of Education. This six-week window offers an opportunity for both the public and experts to offer feedback and guidance on ways New York—and states everywhere—can design the best plan to support student success.

With this in mind, Bellwether Education Partners and the Collaborative for Student Success brought together a panel of independent peer reviewers—myself included—to conduct an interim evaluation of New York’s draft ESSA plan. This panel is an extension of Check State Plans, a larger effort to provide an independent review of all states’ ESSA plans. In the spirit of supporting states as they strengthen their education systems, Bellwether and the Collaborative will conduct a full review of the 34 state plans that are submitted in September, including a final review of New York’s plan.

Our goal for the interim review is to identify both strengths and areas for improvement in New York’s plan and offer constructive recommendations for ways the state could refine its planned approach for supporting public schools and students before submitting to the U.S. Department of Education. Our panel has found both bright spots and areas of recommendation for New York’s draft ESSA plan.

On the positive side, the plan reflects New York’s prioritization of student progress and supports for schools.

Incentivizing Academic Progress. We are encouraged that New York’s performance index—which gives schools credit for student performance at four different levels—places a strong incentive on students meeting grade-level standards. However, the state’s approach to monitoring student growth compares students to their peers rather than an overall standard of mastery and thus doesn’t do enough to ensure that students are on track for graduation.

Supporting Schools. New York’s plan outlines a system that provides differentiated supports to schools based on their needs, as well as a process to support school improvement efforts by requiring schools to complete a comprehensive, diagnostic needs assessment. While this approach is commendable, it could benefit from more detail on how parents, educators and other stakeholders will be engaged in the school improvement process.

Our review panel has also identified four opportunities for New York to provide greater clarity and detail about how the state will reach its goals of supporting all schools and students.

Ensuring that All Students Receive a High-quality Education. The plan could be stronger in detailing how historically underserved students (i.e., students of color, low-income students, English learners, students with disabilities, and Native students), referred to in ESSA as “subgroups,” will be supported — both in terms of how they fit into the state accountability index and how schools with consistently underperforming subgroups will be identified for support. Additionally, the state plans to use n-sizes that would omit many students. We recommend New York reconsider these choices.

Setting Ambitious Goals. Related to supporting all students, New York has set a goal of reducing achievement and graduation rate gaps by 20 percent within five years. On the face of it, this goal seems ambitious, but the plan lacks  data to confirm that this is the case—or that the goal is attainable. We recommend incorporating more evidence to back up this goal and clarifying whether this and other goals are to be acted on or are part of the state’s longer-term vision.

Identifying Schools in Need of Support. We appreciate that New York’s accountability system has a simple list of indicators, but its process for using those indicators to determine which schools are low-performing is very complicated. Moreover, the plan neglects to mention what will happen to schools that don’t fall into the very low-performing category. We encourage the state to consider simplifying its accountability calculations and provide more information on how the accountability system will impact the 95 percent of schools that are not among the lowest performing.

Moving Schools to Improved Status. Because several of New York’s accountability indicators aren’t tied to objective goals, low-performing schools may not know what they would need to accomplish to show sufficient progress. Our panel recommends that the state create more rigorous criteria for how these schools can demonstrate sustained improvement over time.

We applaud New York’s leadership in engaging all of its stakeholders to improve its public education system, and we believe that this spirit of collaboration and shared commitment to progress can drive New York officials to continue to refine its draft ESSA plan before submitting the final plan in mid-September.

Other states are sure to look to New York’s draft as they design their own plans, and we hope that they will look for ways to model the way in which New York monitors the academic progress of students across the performance spectrum while continuing to emphasize the importance of meeting grade-level standards. We also hope that our independent review will inspire New York officials to take a second look at key parts of their plan—and at best practices from other states, such as those identified in the Alliance for Excellent Education equity analysis—to ensure that their plan truly will support the best outcomes for every student in their state.

Phillip Lovell is vice president of policy development and government relations at the Alliance for Excellent Education

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The 29 Experts Joining Forces to Give State ESSA Plans a Harder Accountability Look

The 29 Experts Joining Forces to Give State ESSA Plans a Harder Accountability Look

By CAROLYN PHENICIE for The 74

State plans to carry out the Every Student Succeeds Act will be getting a second — and perhaps tougher — look.

Bellwether Education Partners and the Collaborative for Student Success have assembled a group of advocates, education experts, and former state officials to independently review the first round of ESSA plans submitted in early April, apart from the required federal process.

The goal, the groups said, is to serve as an external check on the federal peer review process, and to look at whether states are going beyond compliance with the law to really set up a system that will accomplish their visions for K-12 education.

In general, the rubric will favor strong accountability systems, tied to college- and career-ready standards for all students. Reviewers will look for ambitious and achievable goals and for “guardrails” to focus attention on students who need the most help. They’ll also be on the lookout for bad accountability systems that can be “gamed” in unproductive ways and systems that push all students to a diploma even if they don’t learn anything along the way.

“The peer review process that the department will do is important; it’s required by the statute. I think it’s also important to have a review process that looks at not just are you complying with the minimum requirements of the law, but is what’s being proposed likely to do what’s right for kids, and that’s what this review is intended to do,” said Phillip Lovell, vice president of policy development and government relations at the Alliance for Excellent Education and one of the more than two dozen reviewers.

The two groups promise a “candid review,” though it won’t cover everything required to be in state plans.

Read the full story here:

Carolyn Phenicie is a senior writer at The 74 based in Washington, D.C., covering federal policy, Congress, and the Education Department.