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This Week鈥檚 ESSA News: Keeping Bias out of School Measurements, Fighting Chronic Absenteeism, Risking Federal Funds

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.)

Constance Lindsay聽聽for聽Education Week聽that measuring school quality is complicated and reflects a community鈥檚 values and politics. When 鈥渉ard metrics鈥 are absent, 鈥減arents and other stakeholders are left to make assumptions often informed by all kinds of biases.鈥 The 鈥渢ools often used to assess schools are lacking and reinforce powerful stereotypes,鈥 often resulting in and negatively impacting 鈥渟chools that are high poverty or serve a majority of students of color.鈥

Even with the requirement that districts and schools 鈥減roduce report cards created for the purpose of rating school quality鈥 under ESSA, 鈥渢he factors that determine 鈥榪uality鈥 are still contested.鈥 When 鈥渟ystems use test scores-based measures of accountability, the concern is that ratings may reflect the realities of demographic differences among children, rather than actual differences in school effectiveness.鈥 While ESSA has the potential to provide more accurate information, it also 鈥渕isses a lot of nuance,鈥 Lindsay reports.

鈥淪chool quality determination has equity implications鈥攊f we’re not careful we will reinforce or even exacerbate existing inequities,鈥 Lindsay concludes. 鈥淚n the rush to provide parents with information about school performance, we should take care to make sure we’re measuring what matters.鈥

Check out below for more ESSA news.

1 Data 鈥渇lub鈥 could cost needy Vermont schools critical federal dollars

Vermont 鈥渞isks running afoul of federal law if it doles out over $2 million in school improvement dollars the way it intends,鈥 Lola Duffort聽聽for VTDigger.com, citing Vermont鈥檚 former deputy education secretary. The 鈥渁gency has had problems rolling out a new data collection system, which has created a series of downstream problems,鈥 including an inability to deliver 鈥溌爁rom this spring鈥檚 math and English testing.鈥 This has been problematic 鈥渇or identifying the schools that need the most help 鈥 and that are entitled to extra federal funds.鈥 Vermont officials have decided 鈥渢o make the funds available to all Title I schools in Vermont, which would effectively spread the dollars out over more than 200 schools.鈥

叠耻迟听 Amy Fowler claims that鈥檚 鈥減recisely what Congress didn鈥檛 want states to do鈥 under ESSA. The federal K-12 law seeks to encourage 鈥渟tates to concentrate federal school improvement dollars in the districts that struggled the most.鈥 That鈥檚 why Vermont is supposed 鈥渢o identify 鈥榗omprehensive鈥 and 鈥榚quity鈥 schools鈥攖he 5 percent of schools that need the most help, based in part on test scores.鈥

https://twitter.com/learningvt/status/1094954835688988673

2 California identifies low-performing schools for first time in six years

California has released the names of its lowest-performing schools for the first time in more than half a decade, according . The 鈥780 schools are in the bottom 5 percent of public K-12 schools as measured by the state鈥檚 new accountability tool, the聽, and require 鈥榗omprehensive school improvement.鈥欌 ESSA 鈥渞equires that states identify the bottom 5 percent of schools 鈥 the lowest-performing schools 鈥 and additionally identify schools with one or more groups of students whose performance meets the criteria for 鈥榣owest performing.’鈥 Schools that have been identified for targeted support will receive it beginning with the 2020-21 school year.

3 鈥淩educing absences, capturing days鈥

In this podcast recording, Jill Anderson of the Harvard Graduate School of Education 聽behavioral scientist聽聽about chronic absenteeism. 鈥淩educing absenteeism is vital, says Rogers, as the Every Student Succeeds Act has led in many states to the increased use of absenteeism as one of the five metrics in districts鈥 evaluation.鈥 This means that 鈥渇or the first time the vast majority of kids will be attending districts that are being evaluated by their states based on ability to reduce absenteeism,鈥 he adds.

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