Below are the most recent news and reports around public engagement.
Public Engagement
Education Data and COVID-19 Recovery: Resources for Leaders
Two new reports from the Data Quality Campaign discuss the need for educational data as officials continue to make many, complex decisions amid the COVID-19 pandemic and in recovery. The first report focuses directly on the importance of transparency and provides clear ways that education…
New Analysis Suggests That Districts Should Be Held Accountable For Student Learning Too
Chad Aldeman of Bellwether Education Partners and Anne Hyslop of the Alliance for Excellent Education ask questions about the focus of accountability measures during and after the COVID-10 pandemic. If districts were, in most places, the entities setting up food distributions, purchasing Chromebooks, making decisions…
School Bus Rides During a Pandemic: Considerations for States and Districts
Transportation has become a significant thorn in the sides of districts working to craft back-to-school plans for the fall, as officials struggle to identify workable solutions for social distancing, sanitation, and scheduling of fleets of busses. In order to meet guidelines released by the Center…
Virginia Implements New Professional Development Program to Retain Novice Teachers
To mitigate teacher shortages, the Virginia Department of Education and the James Madison University College of Education have announced a new partnership called the Virginia New Teacher Support Program, which aims to retain novice teachers in the state. Under this program, first and second-year teachers…
Georgia DOE Requests Input on Seeking Standardized Testing Waiver for 2020-2021 School Year with New Online Survey
As previously reported, Georgia has become the first state to announce its intent to seek a federal testing waiver for the 2020-21 academic year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Officials at the Georgia Department of Education are now asking the public for feedback on this…
Investment in Social-Emotional Learning Means Investment in Academic Growth
Students’ social-emotional learning is being prioritized by education stakeholders more than ever before. That why in this Ed Surge article, Dr. Bill Daggett, “founder of the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE) and former teacher, administrator, and director with the New York State Education…
CARES Act Funds Must Benefit Private Schools Equitably Says USDOE
According to the Catholic News Agency, “Federal coronavirus aid to private schools is now enforceable by law.” This notice comes after “concerns that Catholic and other non-public schools were being excluded from sufficient epidemic relief funds to support protective equipment for students and teachers, cleaning,…
Five Existing Policies Officials May Lean On to Face Looming Budget Cuts
Celina Morgan-Standard, founder and CEO of the Technology for Education Consortium, and David DeSchryver, Director of Research at Whiteboard Advisors, take to EdSurge to discuss some ways in which school leaders and policymakers might begin facing the very expensive reality of reopening schools following COVID-19….
Texas School District Receives National Recognition for Music Education
Eanes Independent School District in the greater Austin area has received the Best Communities for Music Education designation from the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation for the sixth year in a row. “The recognition is awarded to districts demonstrating outstanding achievement in efforts to…
New Report Outlines Growing Potential for a Principal Shortage and Policy Recommendations
According to a new report by the Learning Policy Institute and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, a growing shortage of secondary school principals is “hampering the country’s efforts to provide quality educational opportunities for students.” Among the key findings, the new report found…
Federal Funding Cuts Delayed, Sparing Rural Montana Schools for the Time Being
As reported in the Montana Standard, “cuts to a program that provides funding to rural schools serving students from low-income families will be delayed after mounting criticism.” Previously, the U.S. Department of Education had proposed changes to the Rural Low-Income Schools program’s eligibility requirements. A…
Legislation to Alter Kentucky’s School Accountability System Advances Out of Committee
State lawmakers in Kentucky advanced a bill that “would alter Kentucky’s school accountability system” out of the Senate Education Committee. The legislation would “gauge student achievement on annual K-PREP results, called ‘status,’ and improvement over time, called ‘change.’” The amended version of the bill gives…
To Foster Parent Engagement, Rural Districts Should Focus on Building Trust
In a piece published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, education expert Christopher Holmes outlines what rural school districts can do to facilitate greater parent engagement. Namely, Holmes writes, “to meet the goals of parent and family engagement policy in ESSA, educators must abandon their own middle-class…
INview Gives New Insights for Families Seeking School Information
Launched last month by the Indiana Department of Education, Indiana’s new data portal, INview, “aims to make it easier for families to access school information.” According to spokesperson Adam Baker, the site includes data not previously available, including “school and corporation level data on student…
Indiana’s New Online Data Portal Takes User-Friendly Approach to Reporting School Data
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…
On Four-Year Anniversary, Education Officials Tell Congress ESSA is Working
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…
Collaboration is the Key to Addressing Education and Economic Inequality
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…
Forum Featuring African-American Educators in Florida Focuses on ESSA’s Impact on the Community
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…
In-Depth Discussion Looking Back on Four Years of ESSA
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…
ESSA Provides Flexibility for Oregon Educators to Improve Performance by District
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 as Reform Absent Repair?
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…
ESSA’s Impact on State Assessment Landscape
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…
How States Evaluate Companies for School Turnaround Efforts
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…
New Data Tool Demonstrates College and Career Readiness Gap
“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…
CEP Releases ESSA Evidence Report
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…