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This Week鈥檚 ESSA News: ESSA Architect Sen. Lamar Alexander to Retire, Testing Exams for Innovative Assessment Pilot Program & 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.)

Alyson Klein for Education Week that according to a 聽from federal officials to聽the Georgia Department of Education, state officials who are thinking about applying for ESSA鈥檚 Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority pilot program 鈥渄on’t have to pick just one exam for your test drive 鈥 but you do have to end up with a single test in the end.鈥 That鈥檚 because the Peach State is planning to 鈥渁llow districts, at least initially, to聽, which aim to give teachers a real-time picture鈥 of student achievement.

鈥淚 would like to affirm that a state may propose two different models of innovative assessment in their IADA application,” wrote Donald Peasley, who works in the federal department’s Office of State Support.聽“If a state chose to propose more than one innovative model, then it should be sure to describe how, over the course of the period of the authority, it would evaluate and select one of those models for possible expansion to statewide use.”

Under ESSA, up to seven states are allowed to use locally based tests instead of state assessments, but only with the eventual goal of identifying and implementing a statewide exam. The news that more than one test is allowed in the initial phases of the pilot 鈥渋s a potential game-changer for states who want in on the pilot but haven’t settled on an assessment for every district to use,鈥 Klein reports. However, according to Obama Education Department alum Anne Hyslop, it鈥檚 unclear if this approach adheres to existing ESSA regulations, which 鈥渟ay the program was intended to 鈥榩ilot a single innovative assessment system, which 鈥 if successful 鈥 will replace the current statewide assessment.聽It was not meant to allow for a state to try out multiple different innovative assessment systems simultaneously.鈥欌 Although the department鈥檚 response indicates states have additional flexibility within the pilot program, ultimately, states must have one assessment to be implemented statewide. This is noteworthy, considering other attempts by states in recent years.

See below for more ESSA news.

1 Sen. Lamar Alexander, chief architect of ESSA, to retire

Alyson Klein and Andrew Ujifusa聽 for聽Education Week聽that 鈥淯.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who has been Capitol Hill鈥檚 leading Republican on education issues for years,鈥 announced that he鈥檚 retiring in 2020.聽Alexander was a chief architect of ESSA, which passed in 2015. He said in an interview shortly after the bill鈥檚 passage that the law was able to attract such broad, bipartisan support in part because 鈥渆verybody was really fed up with Washington telling 100,000 public schools so much about what to do.鈥

2 Indiana looking to update ESSA plan to drop federal school ratings

Jeanie Lindsay聽 for Indiana Public Media about a proposed change to the state鈥檚 ESSA plan that would stop schools from getting two ratings 鈥 one state and one federal 鈥 in 2019. 鈥淭he state Department of Education鈥檚 ESSA change would get rid of the federal A through F accountability grades, replacing them with four classification groups: exceeding, meeting, approaching, or not meeting expectations,鈥 Lindsay reports.聽According to department director of school accountability Maggie Paino, 鈥渢he change would help clear up confusion about how schools are doing in the different accountability arenas.鈥

3 Learning from Chicago and Detroit on growth and school ratings

Chris Minnich, of the research-based nonprofit NWEA,聽 for Learning Policy Institute聽that, for many years, schools across the nation have 鈥渂een rated based on a single measure 鈥 how well students do on the annual summative test.鈥 But under ESSA, states have built their own accountability systems and incorporated new metrics, both academic and nonacademic. Minnich says the examples provided by Detroit and Chicago 鈥渟how that education leaders and policymakers are examining how they measure student and school success and are reevaluating what鈥檚 in the best interest of students.鈥

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