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听听newsletter, which you can听! (See our recent ESSA updates听from previous weeks right here.)

Utah State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sydnee Dickson was recently approved to seek a temporary reprieve from ESSA鈥檚 requirement that 95 percent of the Utah鈥檚 students must participate in statewide assessments. The Utah State Board of Education voted June 7 to allow Dickson to ask the U.S. Department of Education for a one-year exemption from the provision, Marjorie Cortez 颈苍听Deseret News. Utah education officials want to continue to 鈥渨ork through initiatives intended to increase test participation rates, which now average 94 percent.鈥�

Previously, the federal department rebuffed Utah鈥檚 initial request for a testing requirement waiver. 鈥淭he Utah State Board of Education does not sufficiently demonstrate how the request will advance student academic achievement,鈥� federal officials wrote to Dickson on May 31. With a looming July 1 deadline, Utah is one of just four states that have yet to win approval for their ESSA accountability plans (the others are California, Florida, and Oklahoma).

In New York, districts that have a high opt-out rate on state assessments could soon 鈥渂e required to use part of their federal aid to get more students to take the mandated exams under regulations tentatively approved鈥� by the state鈥檚 Board of Regents on June 11, John Hildebrand 颈苍听Newsday.听The rules would also 鈥渃reate an academic rating system鈥� that 鈥渇actors in test participation in each district.鈥� The public will have a chance to weigh in on the new rules over the summer; the board is expected to take a final vote on the rules in September.

See below for more recent ESSA news.

1 Tennessee鈥檚 鈥渃reative鈥� approach to school ratings

Tennessee鈥檚 鈥減lan to start grading its schools this year has taken a big detour,鈥� thanks in part to recent online testing snafus, which have 鈥渇orced officials to toss out a new A-F grading system,鈥� Marta W. Aldrich听听for Chalkbeat. The state now will 鈥渞ate each school on a scale of 0-4 on six different performance indicators,鈥� and schools will not 鈥渞eceive a single overall grade or rating as initially planned.鈥� Education Commissioner Candice McQueen says the change complies both with ESSA and with a barring use of this year鈥檚 TNReady scores to assign letter grades to schools.

2 What鈥檚 up with ESSA鈥檚 鈥淏ig Flexible-Spending Pot鈥�?

Education Week鈥檚听Alyson Klein that ESSA鈥檚 Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants program, otherwise known as Title IV, is 鈥渙ne of the most flexible federal programs around.鈥� It also 鈥渏ust got a huge increase, from $400 million in the 2017-18 school year to $1.1 billion for the 2018-19 school year.鈥� The Title IV program is watched especially closely by advocates, education officials, and other education stakeholders 鈥渋n part because the dollars can cover such a wide array of needs 鈥� from school safety training to drama clubs to science programs to suicide prevention.鈥� In this piece, Klein examines 鈥渉ow the program works and how districts might spend that considerable increase.鈥�

3 Investing in innovation 鈥� and leveraging ESSA for improved results

Education Week鈥檚 Sarah Sparks reports that found that only a few of the hundreds of programs that have been proposed under the Investing in Innovation, or i3,听program (the 鈥渙nly Obama-era competitive grant to be codified into [ESSA]鈥�) actually 鈥渓ed to significant interventions.鈥� However, the evaluation also shared that those few programs that did result in student gains can help guide districts to more effectively leverage evidence to improve achievement. Of the 67 grants evaluated, only nine had 鈥渢ight implementation鈥� as well as robust positive impacts. 鈥淚 think this is a highly credible evaluation,鈥� said Patrick Lester of the Social听Innovation Research Center. 鈥淭here are听absolutely听gems in there, so it can be done well. The gems are where the progress lies.鈥�

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