Public Engagement

The Indiana Department of Education’s new data portal, INview “provides both general information about the state’s approximately 1,900 K-12 schools, along with data visualizations on performance metrics like attendance and academic achievement.” The tool was intentionally designed to present school data in a user-friendly manner…

As reported in Education Week, in a letter to Congress, “a group of state and local education officials, teachers’ unions, and others” report the significant progress they are making under the Every Student Succeeds Act,” noting that the law “could lead to significant advances in…

The Every Student Succeed Act pushes “states, districts and schools to identify key measures of school quality and to examine and act on the gaps in outcomes and opportunities for historically marginalized student groups.” This latest phase in the evolution of K-12 accountability can and…

A town-hall-style meeting—themed “Lessons from the Past”—held at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale brought together policymakers and stakeholders for a discussion of ESSA and how the law “holds schools accountable for how students learn and achieve, while also providing…

On Tuesday, December 10, the Collaborative for Student Success is hosting an afternoon discussion of ESSA four years to the day after the law was signed. Taking place at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C., this special event will include a conversation with ESSA’s…

In a shift from its predecessor NCLB, ESSA has given the Oregon Department of Education (DOE) greater flexibility to address and improve student performance across entire school districts rather than individual schools. Educators who have experienced both approaches “are hailing the change,” according to this…

ESSA “was designed to remedy the wrongs” of NCLB, Andrew Saultz, Jack Schneider, and Karalyn McGovern write in the Phi Delta Kappan. But the law has failed to live up to its promise. The trio argue that this is the result of the U.S. Department…

State standardized testing is changing rapidly in the post-No Child Left Behind era. A new report, The New Testing Landscape: How State Assessments are Changing Under the Federal Every Student Succeeds Act, from FutureEd explores emerging trends, including the expanded use of college entrance exams for high…

In EdWeek Market Brief, Michelle R. Davis explores how, almost four years after ESSA’s passage, the federal law’s evidence-based interventions requirements are upending the K-12 education marketplace. “Requirements that education companies show proof of the effectiveness of their products, services, and strategies are shifting how…

“Researchers probing a new, interactive ‘data explorer’ that matches students’ outcomes with college and career readiness measures found that—while nearly all students are graduating from high school in some states—fewer than half are considered ready for college or careers,” reports Michele Molnar for EdWeek Market Brief. “The digital database, released…

Last week, the Center on Education Policy at George Washington University released a report (District Leader Interviews: How School Districts are Responding to ESSA’s Evidence Requirements for School Improvement), which is the second in a series examining the implementation of ESSA’s evidence-based school improvement approaches…

Over at Educators for High Standards, South Carolina 2nd grade teacher Stephanie M. Johnson explains how ESSA is empowering the educator voice in policymaking. This was a great start, she says, as ESSA “encouraged states and district to move toward a model of shared decision…

In this exploration of the educational challenges facing California’s foster youth, Margaret Olmos, Jessica Maxwell, and Vanessa Hernandez note that ESSA “requires that county offices of education and school districts collaborate with county child welfare agencies to ensure educational stability and address protocols for school…

In Education Dive, Linda Jacobson takes a look at a recent Bellwether Education Partners “State of Assessment” report, which “comes as the federal government is considering applications for a $17.6 million competitive grant program that would support efforts in four to eight states related to these…

Daarel Burnette II reports for Education Week that several superintendents in Massachusetts “are spending more money on schools that enroll mostly wealthy students than they are on schools that educate mostly poor students, even though the state designed its funding formula to do the exact…

Last month, in this guest ECS post, Advance CTE’s Senior Policy Associate Austin Estes examined the latest research on, as well as state examples of, work-based learning as it has been put into practice. “While work-based learning is often delivered at the local level in…

Emily Barack reporting for Education Dive writes that, “a new RAND Corp. publication identifies 43 summer programs that meet the top three tiers of the Every Student Succeeds Act’s (ESSA) evidence standards.” In the analysis of the “Investing in Successful Summer Programs” report, “the researchers…

According to Eric Morris at the Uniontown Herald Standard, local businesses are bringing in teachers from local schools to observe daily operations “with the hope it helps grow STEM curricula and the Teacher in the Workplace (TIW) program,” a “state-funded initiative that places educators at…

“New standards under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) prompted the Frewsburg Central School Board of Education to review its performance,” writes Jordan Patterson for the Jamestown Post Journal. At a recent meeting, Assistant Superintendent Danielle Patti “presented to the board the results from the…

In this piece, Aaron Garth Smith takes a look at  California’s latest increase in education funding. Garth Smith argues that the additional funding must be accompanied by more effectiveness, citing that under ESSA, states have to publicly report school-level, per-pupil spending. “Since California has to…

In this piece, “Reflections of a School Reformer,” FutureEd’s Thomas Toch interviews Bob Wise, who recently departed as president of the Alliance for Excellent Education. Toch asked Wise to “reflect on the evolution of the school reform movement during his time at the Alliance,” including…

Suevon Lee reports for Honolulu Civil Beat that the nonprofit Education Institute of Hawaii has started a petition “in an attempt to convince the state Department of Education to turn over financial data the nonprofit says is key to building a fiscal transparency tool for…

According to The Chattanoogan, the National PTA has awarded five states, including its Tennessee affiliate, with a grant to help inform parents about school report cards and “empower them to advocate to ensure this data is accessible, transparent and actionable.” ESSA “requires school districts and…

On May 22, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. ET at the Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, D.C., the Learning Policy Institute, Alliance for Excellent Education, American Institutes for Research, America’s Promise Alliance, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, Opportunity Institute, and Turnaround for…

Today from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET, Education Week will host an online summit that will take a “deep dive” into ESSA and give participants “a unique opportunity to directly interact with reporters and experts about implementation of the nation’s marquee K-12 law.” The…