The Government Shutdown and K-12 Education: Your Guide

The Government Shutdown and K-12 Education: Your Guide

Education Week logoHere we go again: President Donald Trump and Congress were unable to reach agreement on temporary spending plan to keep the government open. So the U.S. Department of Education and other government agencies are on a partial shutdown, as of midnight Friday night. This is the first time this has happened in four years.

Lawmakers will keep trying to hammer out a deal. But in the meantime, the department’s headquarters at 400 Maryland Ave. will be a much quieter place than usual, but most school districts aren’t going to be immediately affected if this turns out to be a short-term shutdown. A longer-term shutdown, however, could cause more headaches. Head Start, the federal preschool program, and Impact Aid to districts with a federal presence in their backyard will likely feel the pinch first. (See below for more).

Below are the answers to some frequently asked questions about what happens now:

How many people will still report to work at the Education Department? A lot fewer than usual. More than 90 percent of the department’s nearly 4,000 employees will be furloughed for the first week of the shutdown. Of course, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her top aides still come in. If the shutdown goes on for more than a week, more employees could return on a temporary basis, but it would not be more than 6 percent of the department’s staff.

Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.

 

Associate Editor Christina Samuels contributed to this post.

Source: Education Week Politics K-12

Betsy DeVos Approves Six More ESSA Plans

Betsy DeVos Approves Six More ESSA Plans

Education Week logoU.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has given six more states the thumbs-up on their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act: Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Montana, and New Hampshire.

These approvals bring the grand total of approved state ESSA plans to 33, plus Puerto Rico’s and the District of Columbia’s. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia submitted plans last spring, and all but one of those states, Colorado, have been approved. Another 34 states turned in plans last fall, and so far, 18 have been approved.

So what do the approved plans look like? Below are some highlights of the state’s draft applications…

Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.

Want to learn more about the Every Student Succeeds Act? Here’s some useful information:


Video: ESSA Explained in 3 Minutes

youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWQGmU-J80Q?rel=0&w=600&h=338

Source: Education Week Politics K-12

Report: States Struggle With ESSA’s Requirements for Foster Children

Report: States Struggle With ESSA’s Requirements for Foster Children

Education Week logoAdvocates for children in foster care had good reason to cheer the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act two years ago. The new law requires schools to break out student achievement data for foster care students so that the public can see how they are doing relative to their peers.

And it calls for students in foster care to be able to stay in their “school of origin” (a term the law did not define) even if it’s no longer their neighborhood school. The state must work with school districts and local child welfare agencies to provide transportation. The transportation was supposed to be in place one year after the passage of ESSA.

So how are state agencies doing with that transportation requirement? The Chronicle of Social Change explored that question and found a mixed picture….

Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.

Source: Education Week Politics K-12.

Lawmakers Press Trump to Spend on Public School Infrastructure

Lawmakers Press Trump to Spend on Public School Infrastructure

Education Week logoA group of lawmakers has told President Donald Trump that new funding for improving school facilities is “essential for advancing student achievement” and should be a part of any broader infrastructure spending plan.

In a Wednesday letter to Trump, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., along with 23 other senators, €”all Democrats, €”highlighted a 2014 federal study that said it would take $197 billion to pay for repairs, modernizations, and renovations needed by U.S. schools, or about $4.5 million per school (53 percent of schools reported in the study’s survey that such actions were necessary). They also cite a separate 2016 report which reported that the nation underfunds school construction by $38 billion every year.

In November, Education Week released a comprehensive report on how school leaders are rethinking school design and facilities.

Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.

 

Many State ESSA Plans Are ‘Uncreative, Unambitious,’ Analysis Finds

Many State ESSA Plans Are ‘Uncreative, Unambitious,’ Analysis Finds

The two-year-old Every Student Succeeds Act was supposed to free states up to go off in bold, new directions on K-12 policy. So did state plans, €”all of which have been turned into the U.S. Department of Education, €”live up to that promise?

Not so much, according Bellwether Education Partners, a Washington consulting firm that reviewed the plans as part of a partnership with the Collaborative for Student Success, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

“With few exceptions, we found state ESSA plans to be mostly uncreative, unambitious, unclear, or unfinished,” wrote Bellwether in an executive summary of the review. That was true even though the set of states that submitted their plans in September had more time to refine their blueprints than the 17 states, including the District of Columbia, that turned in their plans in the spring.

It’s unclear, though, if critiques like Bellwether’s resonate with the Education Department, €”or states. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has already approved sixteen of the seveteen ESSA plan that were submitted in the spring, including some that got low marks from Bellwether and the Collaborative’s review of the first batch of plans.

Bellwether said some of the weakest areas of state plans included goals, which Bellwether didn’t think were grounded in evidence; confusing school ratings systems; and states’ failure to incorporate student subgroup performance into school ratings. (Minnesota was an exception on subgroups.) States also weren’t specific about how they would address the needs of English-language learners and students in special education, according to Bellwether.

Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.

Source: Education Week Politics K-12

Inside the ESSA Plans: What Are States Doing About Goals and Timelines?

Inside the ESSA Plans: What Are States Doing About Goals and Timelines?

By Stephen Sawchuk, Alyson Klein, and Andrew UjifusaEducation Week logo

EDUCATION WEEK — This week, Education Week is bringing its trademark analysis to the remaining state plans for fulfilling requirements of the Every Student Succeeds law. On Monday, we had a look at the states’ proposed “school quality” indicators, €”the required but nonacademic portion of each state’s plan to judge schools. Today, we’re going to take a look at states’ goals for raising student achievement and their timelines for doing so in the plans awaiting federal approval.

One thing we’ll keep stressing again and again this week: how far federal policy has moved since the days of the No Child Left Behind Act (ESSA’s predecessor). Read on.

So, what kinds of goals are states setting?

Some states chose fixed goals that aim for all students, and all subgroups of vulnerable students, such as those qualifying for subsidized school lunches or English-language learners, to reach the same target (such as 80 percent proficiency). What’s nice about this kind of goal is that it sets the same endpoint, making it easier to see over time how achievement gaps are expected to close. States in this category include: Arkansas, Hawaii, Kansas, Mississippi, (grades 3-8 only), Ohio, Minnesota, New York, Rhode island, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.

Source: Education Week Politics K-12

Democrats Ask Betsy DeVos to Act Against ‘Hateful Bullying’ in Schools

Democrats Ask Betsy DeVos to Act Against ‘Hateful Bullying’ in Schools

Education Week logoDemocratic lawmakers want to know how Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will work to stop bullying, harassment, and discrimination in public schools.

In a Wednesday letter, nine senators, including Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate education committee, €”asked the secretary what resources the U.S. Department of Education was providing schools in order to counter “the recent increase in hateful and discriminatory speech and conduct.” They also asked for the number of ongoing investigations by the department into student-on-student harrassment based on things like race, religion, and sexual orientation, as well as whether the federal task force on bullying prevention initiated by President Barack Obama in 2010 would continue on DeVos’ watch.

The senators also took a potshot at DeVos’ boss, President Donald Trump, arguing that his remarks on Twitter have “normalized” homophobia, misogyny, and other forms of discrimination, and that his words have negatively impacted students. And they cite recent incidents in schools, from swastikas drawn in schools to Latino students blocked from entering class by a human chain of other students, to buttress their concerns.

Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.

Source: Education Week Politics K-12

How Do ESSA Plans Stack Up on Using Evidence in School Improvement?

How Do ESSA Plans Stack Up on Using Evidence in School Improvement?

Education Week logoThe Every Student Succeeds Act allows states and districts to come up with their own interventions for struggling schools, with the caveat that improvement strategies have to some sort of evidence to back them up.

So how strong are state ESSA plans when it comes to school improvement? It’s a mixed bag, concludes a report released Friday by the Evidence in Education Lab at Results for America, a non-profit organization that studies school improvement.

The good: Almost every state, €”46 out of the 51, including the District of Columbia, €”included at least some one “promising practice” for building and using evidence in their plans. Eleven states were stand-outs in this area: Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.

Nine states, €”Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Tennessee, €”pledged to distribute federal school improvement dollars at least in part on the strength of school and districts’ plans to use evidence-based interventions…

Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.

Source: Education Week Politics K-12

Trump Ed. Dept. Critiques Idaho’s ESSA Plan

Trump Ed. Dept. Critiques Idaho’s ESSA Plan

Education Week logoThe U.S. Department of Education is almost done critiquing states’ Every Student Succeeds Act plans. In fact, Idaho, which received a letter from the department on Dec. 27, is the second to last state to get a response. (The lone state still waiting: South Carolina, which turned in its plan late for weather related reasons).

Like the other thirty-two states that have gotten feedback so far this winter, Idaho has a long list of things to work on. For instance:

  • Idaho is planning to create a “minority children” subgroup that combines six different groups of students. Civil rights groups say that combining subgroups that way masks achievement gaps. And the department says they are an ESSA no-no if states try to use those “super subgroups” on their own for accountability.
  • Idaho doesn’t have a clear method of measuring English proficiency and incorporating it into its accountability system. That’s not Kosher under ESSA, the department says. (Florida has a similar issue.)
  • Idaho needs to be more specific about how it will identify schools where subgroups of students are consistently low-performing.

Quick refresher: Sixteen states and the District of Columbia turned in ESSA plans in the spring. So far, all of them have been approved, except Colorado. The other 34 states submitted plans this fall. And all of them have gotten feedback, except of course, the Palmetto State. You can read all of the feedback letters here. Nearly every state had a lot to improve.

How seriously are states supposed to take these letters? That’s not clear. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos greenlighted some state plans submitted this fall, even if states didn’t make changes the department asked for.


Source: Education Week Politics K-12

Education Week’s Most Popular Posts This Year Had ESSA, Donald Trump, and … Betsy DeVos

Education Week’s Most Popular Posts This Year Had ESSA, Donald Trump, and … Betsy DeVos

This year featured a new president, a new education secretary, and the first year schools began shifting to the Every Student Succeeds Act. It’s been a busy year for us, and to cap it off, we’re highlighting the 10 blog posts we wrote that got the most readership in 2017. Here we go, from the post with the 10th-most views to the post with the most views:

President Donald Trump repeatedly said on the campaign trail in 2016 that he wanted to end the Common Core State Standards. So when U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said this to a TV news anchor in April, she was channeling Trump’s stated desire. But DeVos’ statement wasn’t accurate, since more than three dozen states still use the content standards. The Every Student Succeeds Act also prohibits DeVos from getting involved in states’ decisions about standards.

Along with promoting school choice, one of DeVos’ big goals this year has been to restrain the federal government’s role in education when it comes to regulations, as well as the size and scope of the U.S. Department of Education. It doesn’t look like her push to significantly slash the department’s budget has the support of Congress, but DeVos has been trying to trim the department’s staffing levels recently.

Remember when Trump won the presidential election? In the wake of his upset win, we highlighted Trump’s potential action on the budget, DeVos’ confirmation hearing, and more…

Read the full article here: May require an Education Week subscription.

Source: Education Week Politics K-12