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This Week鈥檚 ESSA News: Civil Rights Groups Target State Plans, Support for Highly Qualified Teachers, Equity vs. Performance & More

This update on the Every Student Succeeds Act and the education plans now being implemented by states and school districts is produced in partnership with ESSA Essentials, an ongoing series from the Collaborative for Student Success. It鈥檚 an offshoot of their聽聽newsletter, which you can聽! (See our recent ESSA updates聽from previous weeks right here.)

鈥淎 coalition of civil rights groups is urging state education chiefs to take a long, hard look at their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act,鈥 Alyson Klein聽聽for聽Education Week. According to the letter from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, 鈥溾楨SSA plans that do not hold schools sufficiently accountable for their responsibility to all children, especially groups of children who have been shortchanged for too long, fail to meet the intent of the law and聽will undermine ESSA’s purpose to provide all children significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps.鈥”

Although the letter doesn鈥檛 say so explicitly, Klein notes that 鈥渟ome ESSA plans were written or approved by state chiefs who are no longer in office after the 2018 election, [which] 鈥otentially gives new chiefs a fresh start, and a reason to do a deep dive on plans written by their predecessors.鈥 The letter calls for states to involve parents and other stakeholders in the implementation of existing plans and to consult those communities about any proposed amendments.聽The coalition wants 鈥渢o make sure that schools are being held accountable for the achievement of subgroups of students,聽including English learners, students in special education, racial minorities, and low-income students.鈥

Check out below for more ESSA news.

ESSA and supporting highly qualified teachers

Amid recent teacher strikes, Akil Wilson, a Washington, D.C.-based podcaster and parent, 聽how states can better support educators through ESSA. In his piece for Black Press USA, Wilson explains that Title II funds are intended 鈥渢o support class size reduction, encourage performance-based pay for effective educators and develop opportunities to improve overall school conditions.鈥 In addition to funding, ESSA will enable school systems to try to 鈥渁ddress the shortage in classroom instructors by shifting the emphasis for teacher evaluations away from student standardized test performance 鈥 a point of stress for many educators.鈥

https://twitter.com/nnpa_essa/status/1092817534372495360

Is ESSA another 鈥渆lusive dream鈥?

础濒蝉辞听 for Black Press USA, Dr. Elizabeth V. Primas, program manager for the NNPA ESSA Awareness Campaign, says that as 鈥渆ducation leaders review the individual state plans that have been developed and approved in keeping with the Every Student Succeeds Act, it is obvious that many states are making an attempt to prioritize equity over performance.鈥 Some states have set accountability timelines 鈥渟ignifying the urgency of the problem,鈥 while others 鈥渃ontinue to miss the mark by setting goals that are too distant.鈥 Primas is concerned that these plans will 鈥渄isproportionately and negatively impact students of color and low-income students.”

DeVos addresses National School Boards Association

Recently, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos gave聽 in front of the National School Boards Association. As part of her remarks, she said that 鈥渢here is no universal school safety plan that will work for every school across our country鈥 and that a 鈥減rescriptive approach by Washington would be inappropriate, imprudent, and ineffective鈥 because what 鈥渨orks in one community wouldn鈥檛 be the right answer in another,鈥 so 鈥渃hallenges need local solutions.鈥 She added that community-specific decision-making is 鈥渁t the heart of the Every Student Succeeds Act,鈥 which 鈥渞epresents an important shift in America鈥檚 approach to education policy.鈥 DeVos argued that ESSA resulted from the realization that 鈥渇ederal overreach in education had failed to achieve well-intentioned goals.鈥

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