Liya Amelga serves as the Managing Director of Strategy and Operations. Prior to joining ExcelinEd, she worked as the Director of Equity and Member Services for the National School Boards Association.
This #AskExcelinEd series features our analysis of the nuts and bolts of the first 17 ESSA plans (16 states, plus Washington, D.C.) submitted to the U.S. Department of Education. Each week we will answer a different question about these plans to help the next 34 states learn from the strengths and weaknesses of the first round of plans.
Stay tuned for the next #AskExcelinEd series featuring innovation and next generation student learning.
Note: To date, 14 of the 17 plans have been approved by USED; the remaining 3 plans continue to evolve as those states incorporate feedback from the Department. This entry is accurate as of September 12.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires that each state meaningfully differentiates its schools based at least on the following indicators:
The indicator of school quality or student success (SQ/SS), should be academic, but may be non-academic and must be weighted less than the academic indicators. (For more on the weighting of academic indicators check out this #AskExcelinEd post). ESSA gives states a significant amount of freedom to select their own SQ/SS indicator or indicators, as long as the indicators are valid, reliable, disaggregated by subgroup and comparable statewide.
When ESSA was first passed, there was intense interest in the SQ/SS indicator. Many education experts speculated on the measures states would include in their accountability systems. Meanwhile, some organizations dedicated to the implementation of rigorous accountability systems focused on student outcomes, like ExcelinEd, were concerned that states would use the SQ/SS indicator to water down or complicate their accountability systems. Fortunately, this has largely not been the case so far.
Here are three takeaways from the first round of ESSA plans submitted to the US Department of Education:
ExcelinEd maintains that all the indicators used in the accountability calculation should focus on student learning outcomes; those that are not should be reported separately. State policymakers in the process of finalizing their ESSA plans have the opportunity to prioritize student learning outcomes when selecting their school quality and student success indicators.
Have another question or need ESSA-related resources? Let us know!
Previous Posts in This Series:
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