EdNavigator, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing student access to opportunities from preschool through college and beyond, recently published a comprehensive and compelling discussion on student assessments specifically geared for parents. The piece, titled What Parents Need to Know About Tests, explores misconceptions about the...
Writer and mom to a student who happens to have Down’s Syndrome, Vicki Vila discusses how accountability measures put into place by ESSA have helped and motivated schools to ensure a proper learning environment for students who receive special education services at a greater rate...
Parents in the Ferguson-Florissant School District just outside of St. Louis are “on edge after receiving an alarming e-mail about their classroom teachers.” According to the email received by some parents in the district, “one or more of their child’s teachers are not ‘highly qualified’...
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...
As Tran Nguyen reports for the Missourian, data released by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will allow parents to look up “per-student costs school building by school building” across all Missouri public schools. Previously, this information was only made available at the...
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education announced the release of “important information on how local education leaders can make sure parents and caregivers have accurate and accessible information on how schools are performing in their state.” This new guide, entitled Opportunities and Responsibilities for State...
According to this report from the LA Sentinel, on June 25, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) hosted a Black Parents’ Town Hall Meeting on Educational Excellence. At the event, stakeholders “engaged in a lively discussion” about ESSA. The event was a part of NNPA’s...
For the first time—thanks to ESSA—the federal government is requiring states to report school-level spending data this year. Writing in The 74, Data Quality Campaign Director of Policy and Advocacy Brennan McMahon Parton has five areas she thinks states should focus on when preparing to...
Cindi Williams, co-founder of Learning Heroes and a principal at HCM Strategists, writes in The 74 about the vital importance of making sure parents have access to clear and honest information about both how their child or children are doing in school—and how well schools...
In Governing, J. Brian Charles reports that chronic absenteeism “plagues” schools across the nation, with roughly 14% of students chronically absent over the 2013-2014 academic year. But there’s a simple answer to this problem, he argues. “When kids are absent, schools are required by state...
