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.
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…
Seventeen state plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act have passed the U.S. Department of Education’s initial completeness check and are ready for peer review, the next step in the approval process, the department announced Friday.
“Today’s announcement is a big win for ESSA implementation. I am committed to returning decisionmaking power back to states and setting the department up to serve the support and monitoring roles intended by Congress,” U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in a statement. “The department worked with states to ensure their plans included all statutorily required components laid out in the…
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….
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…
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…
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.
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.)…
The public comment period on Connecticut’s draft ESSA plan has ended. Thank you for your feedback. Our goal is to submit the final plan on April 3.
In the video below, Commissioner Wentzell discusses the plan and the survey Connecticut used to collect feedback on it.
About ESSA
In December of 2015, President Obama signed into law the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The title of the reauthorized legislation, which replaces the No Child Left Behind Act, is the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The passage of the ESSA provides a much anticipated opportunity to improve outcomes for all students.
ESSA requires that states develop plans that address standards, assessments, school and district accountability, and special help for struggling schools. The 2016-17 school year will be a transition period, with full implementation of Connecticut’s state plan under ESSA in the 2017-18 school year.
Webinar 4. Title II (Preparing, Training & Recruiting High-Quality Teachers, Principals, and Other School Leaders) and Title III (Language Instruction for English Learners and Immigrant Students) under ESSA.
These proposed rules are subject to a 60-day public comment period, with comments due by November 7, 2016. To submit comments to USED, please visit the Federal Register.
CSDE submitted comments on Title l – Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged-Supplement No Supplant
Title 1, Parts A and B: Academic Assessments and Innovative Assessments
USDoED released two sets of proposed ESSA regulations on Monday, July 11, 2016; one on academic assessments and one on innovative assessments. The proposed rules are available below along with a summary of what has been recommended and additional resources.
These proposed rules are subject to a 60-day public comment period, with comments due by September 9, 2016. To submit comments to USDoED, please visit the Federal Register:
Accountability, Consolidated State Plans, and Data Reporting
USED released proposed ESSA regulations on accountability, consolidated state plans, and data reporting on Tuesday, May 31, 2016. The proposed rules are available below along with a summary of what has been recommended and additional resources.
