Education Week’s Alyson Klein declares, “It’s official.” After a long and at times contentious process, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has (finally) given Florida’s ESSA plan the thumbs up. That means all state plans (as well as those from Puerto Rico and DC) are now approved....
On September 25, the Senate HELP Committee held a hearing to garner state perspectives on ESSA implementation. The hearing featured education chiefs from Nebraska (Matthew Blomstedt), Delaware (Susan Bunting), and South Carolina (Molly Spearman), as well as the president of Democrats for Education Reform Shavar...
Education Week’s Francisco Vara-Orta writes that students do better when they have engaged parents (or other adults) to not only help with homework, but also serve as their advocate with educators. But for parents with multiple jobs, whose English language skills are limited, or who...
Education Week’s Alyson Klein reports on an analysis released by the Alliance for Excellent Education, that found many state ESSA plans “don’t do a great job of incorporating the performance of vulnerable subgroups of students, such as racial minorities, English-learners, and those with disabilities.” Additionally,...
Erin Hinrichs provides an excellent overview of Minnesota’s ESSA plan for MinnPost. Noting that while standardized testing still matters a “great deal,” the new North Star system is based on five key measurements, including “academic achievement, academic growth, progress toward English language proficiency for students...
The Migration Policy Institute’s Julie Sugarman and Courtney Geary, as a part of holding K-12 and school districts accountable for meeting Every Student Succeeds Act mandates, have pulled together a series of fact sheets that provide “an overview of EL student demographics and outcomes” in...
Corey Mitchell reports for Education Week that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ plan to shut down “the long-standing federal office that supports English-learners,” comes amid “concerns from civil rights groups that the Education Department has already failed to ensure equity for English-learners—including approving state Every Student...
Recent analyses by Achieve and UnidosUS find many state ESSA plans are deficient when it comes to equity and educating English-language learners (ELLs), Corey Mitchell reports for Education Week. A pair of policy briefs from the organizations demonstrate that more than 50 percent of these plans purposefully apply...
A brief from the Migration Policy Institute’s Julie Sugarman examines how how under ESSA—where states must publish significant amounts of student data, including for English-language learners—more data will be available than ever before. Sugarman explains that “knowing where to find and how to use these...
Corey Mitchell writes in Education Week about a seven-month ethnographic study conducted by Lehigh University Assistant Professor Sara Kangas, which found that some educators do not “prioritize language services for ELLs because they had low expectations for the students.” At the same time, many states “didn’t...
