On August 29, Minnesota’s Department of Education released the state’s most recent statewide test scores, “along with a batch of other updated data the state uses to track schools’ performance.” Erin Golden and MaryJo Webster of the Minneapolis Star Tribune report that included in the...
Theresa Bourke reports about a local district’s effort to improve their special ed math curricula as part of their continuous improvement plan under ESSA. The district “began the initiative last year because data showed special education students—especially at the elementary and middle school levels—were not...
Erin Hinrichs provides an excellent overview of Minnesota’s ESSA plan for MinnPost. Noting that while standardized testing still matters a “great deal,” the new North Star system is based on five key measurements, including “academic achievement, academic growth, progress toward English language proficiency for students...
Erin Golden and MaryJo Webster report for the Minneapolis Star Tribune that, under ESSA, Minnesota is “broadening its barometer for success to include high school graduation rates, attendance, progress made by students learning English, and students’ improvement on test scores,” and under these measures, about a quarter of schools...
MinnPost reports that, in light of the U.S. Department of Education’s recent approval of Minnesota’s ESSA plan, “establishing high graduation expectations seems essential to ensuring the state has a more equitable public education system.” But the gains so often celebrated on this issue are being...
In the Austin Daily Herald, Solvejg Wastvedt reports that the U.S. Department of Education has approved Minnesota’s ESSA plan, under which the state “will evaluate schools on five factors: state test scores, how many students move up a level on state tests, graduation rates, progress...
According to the Pioneer Press, Minnesota schools “must make across-the-board progress if they want to be released from the increased oversight and support provided to struggling schools under the state’s new education accountability plans.” This is just one of several aspects of the state’s ESSA...
St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter Christopher Magan reports that, in mid-December, the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to Minnesota Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius “asking state leaders to clarify several points of Minnesota’s new school accountability plan.” Minnesota was asked to clarify “how the...
Politico’s Morning Education reports that Minnesota, New York, Virginia and West Virginia also received federal feedback this week.
Three state legislators in Minnesota have written to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and state Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius saying the state’s ESSA plan “lacks transparency and clarity” and “will not do enough for underperforming teachers and schools.”
