ESSA Resources

Idaho joined the list of states looking to offer free online math tutoring through a new service by Khan Academy founder Sal Khan and backed by former education secretary Arne Duncan. The free tutoring platform, Schoolhouse.world, has also entered into partnerships with Nevada, Rhode Island,…

“The data moment has arrived,” says Data Quality Campaign President and CEO Jennifer Bell-Ellwanger in a piece for the 74 Million. Citing the prioritization of data collection and use throughout a number of Executive Orders and strategies employed by President Joe Biden, Bell-Ellwanger says, “it’s…

Michigan education officials have approved a new route for men of color to become teachers in Michigan public schools, citing the fact that less than 2% of educators in the state are Black men, though in many districts, the percentage of Black students may be…

A bill being considered in Colorado would establish a dedicated early childhood department tasked with building a plan for universal preschool in the state by 2023. Using funds from a new nicotine tax recently approved by voters, the expansion of pre-K in the state would…

Members of the California State Board seemed finally ready to push the state’s data and accountability system to track student progress over time, an action that has been urged in the state by experts, advocates, and even federal education officials since 2015. Due to the…

Florida is the latest state to take steps to expand early learning programs and tackle declining literacy rates, two topics that have remained at the forefront of officials’ plans to reopen schools, make up for learning lost to the pandemic, and strategically invest billions of…

Seven schools in North Carolina’s Beaufort County will receive funding to deliver new magnet programs in the areas of pre-med, network engineering, and cybersecurity thanks to a grant from the federal Education Department. The grant program is focused on expanding outreach to minority students and…

The Education Department has released updated guidance to states on the collection of critical civil rights and education data. The guidance provides recommendations on how local and state officials can gather information on matters like attendance, school discipline, and school safety even as schools continue…

The Education Commission of the States published the final piece in a 3-part series on school accountability, exploring how rapidly state accountability systems had to adapt to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic and the abrupt halt of data collection systems typically used to inform…

The Arts Education Partnership is out with an update to its ArtScan policy database and one-pager, which was developed in coordination with the Education Commission of the States. The 2021 updates feature coverage of new arts education policies and initiatives in states like Florida, where…

Reporter Sami Edge dove into the issue of mental health access for Idaho’s students in new coverage for IdahoEdNews. Edge says that though nearly 1 in 5 students suffer from mental health challenges – a number that likely skyrocketed during the pandemic – Idaho education…

Abby Javurek, a vice president at prominent national nonprofit assessment provider NWEA, takes a look at ESSA’s Innovative Assessment provisions in a new piece in the 74 Million. She argues that the pilot program was on the right path in principle but was not implemented…

Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn discussed her state’s rationale for moving forward with assessments this spring in a Q&A with the Collaborative for Student Success. Schwinn detailed why data collection, in her department’s view, is so important to guide efforts to accelerate learning amid the…

Testing 1-2-3 commentator Dale Chu kicked off a new Power Rankings series on the Collaborative’s Assessment HQ platform by evaluating Washington state’s proposal to administer a sampling of its annual summative assessment this school year. Across four categories – opportunity to demonstrate learning of all…

Pennsylvania has published its school-level spending data for the 2018-19 school year, making it the final state to meet the federal requirement put in place by ESSA. As with all other states’ data, per-pupil expenditure information is accessible through the Edunomics Lab’s Data Hub.

The Biden Education Department has approved requests from Michigan officials to pause a number of accountability measures amid the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. The move was in line with flexibilities offered by the department in national guidance released in February. Federal officials are still…

The EdNote education policy blog has launched a new series reflecting on school accountability systems. The series comes more than five years after passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which required states to design data-driven accountability plans meant to help improve school quality and…

The Edunomics Lab has published a new resource designed to guide policymakers through key decisions during the creation of a state’s education funding formula. The decision tree includes considerations for establishing or adjusting funding allocations, navigating accountability measures, effectively using data and tools, and more….

Kentucky officials have clarified guidance for schools and districts on the state’s plan for administering spring assessments this year and using the results to inform instruction, guide supports, and depict pandemic learning loss. Education Commissioner Jason Glass, discussing Kentucky’s assessment plan in light of updated…

After announcing plans to continue pursuing a waiver of federally required statewide assessments despite Education Department guidance saying such requests would not be approved, the New York Board of Regents has stated a contingency plan. In the event the Department rejects plans to cancel NY…

According to the Office of the D.C. Auditor, District officials have failed to collect required data needed to evaluate the performance of schools, including data on student achievement, absenteeism, and enrollment and transfers – despite receiving $30 million in local and federal funding for reporting…

Montana has released federally required school report cards for the 2019-20 school year, while flagging that some key data points that typically rely on student test scores would be missing as assessments were canceled at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the missing data,…

EdNavigator, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing student access to opportunities from preschool through college and beyond, recently published a comprehensive and compelling discussion on student assessments specifically geared for parents. The piece, titled What Parents Need to Know About Tests, explores misconceptions about the…

The Tennessee Office of the Comptroller has launched an interactive dashboard for school-by-school spending data for every school in the state, building on the ESSA requirement that states publicly report per-pupil expenditure data starting with the 2018-19 school year. The Comptroller’s report on the data…

In light of the Education Department’s decision to refrain from issuing a second year of waivers of federally required statewide student assessments this school year, states are rapidly shifting their conversations to focus on how best to collect, present, and use resulting data on student…