Dale Mezzacappa reports for Philadelphia Public School Notebook that, thanks to Pennsylvania’s ESSA plan, within the next two years Keystone State parents and education stakeholders of all kinds will have a lot more information at their proverbial fingertips, going “far beyond” simple demographics and exam...
The 74’s Carolyn Phenicie reports on how tough discipline and chronic absenteeism may “collide” under ESSA. “As more states rate schools based on how many of their students are chronically absent,” she writes, “policymakers must consider harsh discipline practices, an issue at the fore in...
Oklahoma schools are held accountable differently under ESSA. While “the 95 percent attendance rate” under previous federal and state statutes “made schools focus on the number of students who showed up each day, it failed to draw any attention, or offer help, to the number...
Chalkbeat’s Matt Barnum writes that, under ESSA, schools “across the country are about to be held accountable for student attendance—attaching stakes to a measure that previously had much less significance and increasing the risk that schools will try to manipulate that data.” Of course, “one way...
Education Week’s Daarel Burnette II writes that ESSA was meant to “unleash a flood of innovation” when it came to, among other things, measuring school quality and student success beyond test scores.” So why, he asks “did so many states end up picking two ways...
FutureEd, an independent think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, released a new report—“Who’s In: Chronic Absenteeism Under ESSA”—which provides a comprehensive review of the provisions in all 51 state ESSA plans, as well as the results of an analysis of federal chronic...
Education Week’s Alyson Klein, Andrew Ujifusa, and Stephen Sawchuk have a message for school officials: “Get ready to figure out whether your students have a problem with chronic absenteeism. And while you’re at it, see if you’re getting them ready for college and the workplace.”...
According to the Union Bulletin, the Washington State Office of Public Instruction is examining ways to track absenteeism under the state’s new ESSA plan. One in five students in Washington miss 10 percent of the 180-day school year. State Education Superintendent Chris Reykdal stated that...
In an exit interview with Education Week, Dept. of Education Secretary John B. King, Jr. discussed ESSA and equity opportunities. King was encouraged by state chiefs focusing on the “relationship between ESSA and equity” and how states are “going to use ESSA to close opportunity...
