Andrew Ujifusa reports for Education Week about the publication’s updated ESSA tracker, highlighting “six individual policy areas that advocates, analysts, and educators are watching closely,” in each state’s plan, such as long-term objectives, measuring school quality “beyond test scores and graduation rates,” and school ratings.
Key Details on State ESSA Plans
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New School Report Cards in Illinois Focus on Student Growth
Karen Berkowitz reports in the Chicago Tribune that on October 31, Illinois will release its new school report cards, which under ESSA will now emphasize “students’ academic gains in relation to those of other students across the state.”
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Midterm Races ESSA-Watchers Should Keep Their Eyes On
“U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos may have approved every state’s vision for implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act—but that doesn’t mean the plans are all done and dusted,” Klein also writes in Education Week. “States can still make changes to their plans,” and after the midterms, “many of them may want to.” While federal officials will need to approve significant changes, details of how this will actually look are still pending. Three-dozen states will be holding gubernatorial elections—the winners of which must give ESSA plan changes the nod (and eight or more of whom will have the power to appoint chiefs, while others will have the authority to appoint state board members). An additional seven states are also electing chiefs. Because some of these elections could have “dramatic consequences” for ESSA, Klein provides a rundown of which elections ESSA-watchers should keep their eyes on during Election Day.
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Military-Family Struggles at Beginning of School Year—and how MSI Could Help
Kiera Gallagher, M.Ed, a teacher at Albritton Middle School at Fort Bragg and an Army spouse, reflects on the struggles military families like her own face and how such families “cross their fingers” during the back to school period of the year. She writes that each time she hopes “that the transition out of one school system and into another goes smoothly and doesn’t get in the way of their child’s educational success.” While Gallagher thinks ESSA’s Military Student Identifier (MSI) “by itself is helpful,” she also says “to provide the greatest value for military families, it needs to be linked to programs with a proven track record of helping military-connected children and addressing their unique educational needs.”
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ESSA Plan “Set to Make Life Harder for Students Learning English”
Conor P. Williams writes in The 74 that Florida’s “ambivalence” towards English-language learners “shows up in its recent, meandering efforts to bring its education system into compliance with federal law.” Not only was Florida “the last state” to have its ESSA plan approved, the state also “knew it had compliance problems as soon as the new law went into place.” William writes, state leaders “initially announced they were going to seek waivers from the law—only to forge ahead (unsuccessfully) without making any changes.”
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Looking Ahead to the 116th Congress
The 74’s Carolyn Phenicie has “6 Education Predictions for the New Split Congress,” including some “ESSA changes.” The Education Department has “set a March 1, 2019, deadline for states to change their ESSA plans for how they’ll rate schools in the 2019-20 school year,” Phenicie reports. State chiefs “must consult with their governors and give communities a chance to comment.” With “several new governors who focused on K-12” taking office in 2019, changes to how the nation’s keystone education law is implemented in the states are likely.
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“No Time to Waste” on ESSA Personnel Reporting
According to eSchool News, Kronos is sponsoring a webinar on February 6, which will provide information about three primary issues relating to ESSA’s personnel reporting requirements: 1. how “labor impacts ESSA reporting,” 2. the “internal controls to help track time and effort,” and 3. how “school districts across the country are adapting.” The event will feature Christine Ostrowski, Deputy Chief Financial Officer for the School District of Philadelphia, and Dr. Kecia Ray, Principal at K20 Connect.
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Will New Mexico’s ESSA Changes Test DeVos?
“New Mexico is planning a major shakeup of its plan to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act,” writes Alyson Klein for Education Week. “And it’s not the only state that’s mulling changes. Among those with potential revisions in the works: Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina, and Wyoming.” However, it’s New Mexico’ rewrite “that could present an interesting test for U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her team. Will they let a state go in an entirely new direction, as long as what it is proposing to do is still kosher under the law?”
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Trump Admin “Falling Short” on ESSA Implementation
In Education Week, Megan Duff and Priscilla Wohlstetter provide an overview of a recent study conducted by them and their colleagues regarding the ESSA planning process, which concludes that the process has “veered off course.” How so? ESSA, contrary to NCLB, reverts much of the power to set education policy back to the states when it comes to assessments, school improvement, and other areas. However, the U.S. Department of Education “is still responsible for providing guidance, support, and corrective action to the states,” and their “analysis found the current administration is falling short of their end of the bargain.”
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One Law, Many Viewpoints: How ESSA is Viewed Four Years Into Its Implementation
When the Every Student Succeeds Act was passed into law on December 10, 2015, President Barack Obama called it a “Christmas Miracle.” While “public schools are still in the process of formally adjusting,” to the law and some critics continue to raise concerns over its efficacy, “the universal expectation on Capitol Hill is that it will effectively be the law of the land for years to come.” On its four-year anniversary of becoming law, this piece in Education Week brings together a range of voices—from members of Congress and the Department of Education to state superintendents, principals, and teachers—to reflect on progress made under the law and what work is still left to do.
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