蜜桃影视

This update on the Every Student Succeeds Act and the education plans now being refined by state legislatures is produced in partnership with ESSA Essentials, a new 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.)

Idaho鈥檚 Department of Education recently released a list of the state鈥檚 29 lowest-performing schools, as part of the state鈥檚 accountability plan under ESSA, Clark Corbin in Idaho Ed News. Schools were identified based on a variety of indicators that the public helped choose, including assessments, student growth, English learner proficiency, student surveys, graduation rates, and college and career readiness.

Under the state鈥檚 accountability plan, schools falling within the bottom 5 percent ended up on the list and qualify for additional turnaround supports. High opt-out rates landed one school, in particular, on the list, Corbin notes, as the school鈥檚 86 percent participation rate fell below the 95 percent cutoff established by ESSA. According to Corbin, this is the first time Idaho has identified low-performing schools 鈥� and before ESSA, the state hadn鈥檛 had an accountability system in place for years.

Karlynn Laraway, the department鈥檚 director of assessment and accountability, told Corbin, 鈥淲e鈥檙e not identifying schools for ridicule or anything else. 鈥� We鈥檙e really focused on the schools鈥� needs and supporting them for improvement.鈥� Laraway explained: 鈥淥ne thing coming to schools with the identification is a wealth of support from resources. 鈥� We know change doesn鈥檛 happen overnight. We want parents to stay engaged and involved. This isn鈥檛 a gotcha; this is how can we help.鈥�

Check out below for more ESSA news.

1 Making sure education policies work in the classroom

Candace Hines, a kindergarten teacher in the Achievement School District in Memphis, 聽in the聽Commercial Appeal聽that ESSA gives Tennessee 鈥渕ore autonomy to design policies to meet the needs of our state鈥檚 students.鈥� When it comes to improving student achievement, Hines explains, it is important to consider a broad range of factors, especially those that are 鈥渦nique to specific communities and populations.鈥� ESSA 鈥渆mpowers Tennessee with the responsibility to decide how to close achievement gaps, improve schools and make sure that all our children succeed,鈥� and these decisions 鈥渕ust be made collaboratively.鈥� She encourages decision makers to visit more classrooms, meet teachers, students, and parents, and hear all their perspectives when developing policies that impact the classroom.

2 The end of subsidized lunch as a student poverty metric?

For accountability purposes, economically disadvantaged students have largely been identified by their eligibility for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program. But more and more schools are providing free lunch to all students under 鈥渃ommunity eligibility鈥� provisions, which can present challenges for states as they implement their new, ESSA-based school accountability systems,聽聽Matthew Chingos in a piece for the Brookings Institution. Chingos points out the new challenge this presents: 鈥淐ontinuing to use [free or reduced-price lunch] to identify economically disadvantaged students in community eligibility schools means either saying that all students are eligible, which would violate the spirit of ESSA, or surveying families to find out who would be eligible on an individual basis, which would be costly and burdensome.鈥�

3 Using data to meet education goals under ESSA

States have 鈥渕ade big commitments鈥� in their ESSA accountability plans to use data effectively and help reach their education goals, which is a 鈥渕ajor recognition of data as a powerful tool when it鈥檚 working for students,鈥� Data Quality Campaign鈥檚 Brennan McMahon Parton聽聽here in 蜜桃影视. DQC recently took a look at each individual state鈥檚 ESSA plan and found that 鈥渨hile approaches to student success vary, the commitment to data use is clear.鈥� Parton outlines three 鈥渕ajor ways鈥� states are 鈥渄eploying data鈥� to meet their goals, such as supporting districts鈥� and schools鈥� use of data, using data at the 鈥渁gency level to monitor and foster progress,鈥� and increasing transparency.

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