DeVos Smart for “Lenient Attitude” Toward ESSA Plans?
June 16, 2019
While states “frequently and successfully flexed their muscles” when negotiating the details of their Every Student Succeeds Act plans with the U.S. Department of Education, the question of “whether Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was smart to let them take that approach or often just let states off the hook is up for debate,” writes Andrew Ujifusa for Education Week. “Those are two main conclusions from a new study of the first round of ESSA plan approvals from Megan Duff, a research assistant at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Priscilla Wohlstetter, a Teachers College distinguished research professor.” In “Negotiating Intergovernmental Relations Under ESSA” Duff and Wohlstetter “say that instead of a devolution of power, their study ‘suggests [the U.S. Department of Education] may be growing savvier in its implementation of policy’ by relying on negotiations instead of sanctions.”