Secretary King Discusses ESSA Implementation in Education Week Interview
June 6, 2016
Sec. John King was featured in an interview with Education Week to discuss various aspects of the current implementation of ESSA. Key takeaways from the interview included:
• Heavy emphasis will be placed on equality programs designed to benefit underperforming schools, like Title I funding and accountability requirements.
• The need for a summative rating systems for schools, which some districts are already implementing.
• The draft regulations on tracking underperforming students and subgroups “propose flexibility for every state in setting goals and interim targets” but also set a time limit for defining these groups.
• On “supplement-not-supplant” he noted that the Dept. of Education is “committed to the principle that the dollars have to be supplemental and that the inequities that we see between schools within districts are inconsistent.”
• On states current efforts around implementation plans, he expressed concerns that some states are not including civil rights groups at the outset.
Read more here.