[Ohiogift] Public Education NewsBlast for May 19, 2016

Thu May 19 12:34:55 EDT 2016

May 19, 2016 - In This Issue:

ESSA in a nutshell

An opportunity for best practices

An expansion of alternative teacher prep?

A boon for English Language Learners

The potential for effective assessments

ESSA's actual effect

Prohibitions

Themes in ESSA coverage

The ESEA devolves

A few recommendations for ED

All About ESSA

ESSA in a nutshell

The Alliance for Excellent Education has created a series of concise analyses in both text and video of several key areas within the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). In terms of accountability, under ESSA, states must focus resources on low-performing schools and traditionally underserved students who consistently demonstrate low academic performance. ESSA supports states in implementing high-quality assessments through flexibility, funding, and a new pilot program. Under ESSA, states and districts are responsible for supporting and improving the quality of low-performing high schools, and for improving the quality and effectiveness of teachers, principals, and other school leaders. State exams must include measures that assess higher-order thinking skills and understanding, and may be partially delivered in the form of portfolios, projects, or extended-performance tasks. States are also required to adopt challenging academic content standards and demonstrate that those standards align with entrance requirements for credit-bearing course work in the state's public system of higher education. States must also adopt relevant state career and technical education (CTE) standards, and states and districts may use federal Title II funds to support training and professional development for teachers, principals, and other school leaders on effective integration of technology into curricula and instruction. ESSA also includes a competitive grant program to support professional development around classroom instruction for English language learners.
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An opportunity for best practices
A March 2016 report from the Center for American (CAP) Progress finds that recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act offers a chance to implement comprehensive, evidence-based school-improvement strategies similar to those under the Houston Independent School District's Apollo 20 program. Apollo 20 implemented five best practices of high-performing charters -- data-driven instruction; excellence in teaching and leadership; a culture of high expectations; frequent and intensive tutoring; and an extended school day and year -- and saw significant gains in student scores in Math and English Language Arts. The report indicates that although ESSA requires districts to implement evidence-based interventions in underperforming schools, states and districts have discretion in their approach and wide latitude to develop school-improvement plans. As examples, the report documents and analyzes how three districts -- Houston; Denver; and Lawrence, Massachusetts -- overcame significant obstacles using the Apollo 20 strategies to produce significant student gains; these strategies are available to all districts. The report also highlights the policy context and external partnerships that enabled each district's success, and offers evidenced-based examples of school improvement that states and districts should consider as they start to implement ESSA. More

An expansion of alternative teacher prep?
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) could usher in new ways to prepare teachers for the classroom, wrote Sarah Garland in December 2015 for The Hechinger Report. Some ESSA provisions allow states to institute new degree-granting academies for teachers outside of traditional higher education systems, and encourage the creation of residency programs in which teacher recruits are paired with veterans for a year of in-classroom training alongside coursework. Alternative programs like these are already popular in certain states, but the new law could spur even faster expansion -- which could be controversial. "The way the language is couched, you read it, it sounds so fabulous for prospective teachers and education generally. And then you stop and think, 'Wait a minute. We're talking about using money to support teacher preparation programs that aren't accountable,'" said Pamela Carroll of the University of Central Florida. But even those concerned about a possible lowering of standards were heartened by the law's promotion of training in which new recruits spend significant time overseen by an experienced teacher in a real classroom. New regulations for teacher-preparation programs that the Department of Education is set to release could indicate whether regulations will apply across the board to traditional programs and alternatives. More

A boon for English Language Learners

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) could significantly bolster support for English-language learners (ELL), their families, and the educators who work with them, wrote Scott Sargrad in January 2016 in U.S. News and World Report. No Child Left Behind took a major step forward for ELLs by disaggregating achievement data and holding schools accountable for improving ELL reading and math achievement and graduation rates under Title I. However, the law treated English language acquisition for ELLs differently, creating a completely separate accountability system that only applied to districts and states, causing confusion. Now, under ESSA, improving English language proficiency is a required indicator in every state's school accountability system. Importantly, these changes signal to states that helping ELLs gain skills for academic success must be a priority. Still, widespread shortages of teachers of English as a second language remain, and these teachers often experience poor teacher preparation, inadequate compensation, and a lack of high-quality professional development; this must be fixed. Fortunately, under ESSA, the amount Congress provides for ELL programs could increase to $885 million by 2020. Although actual funding will depend on appropriations, Congress clearly and finally understands the importance of support for this growing population of students. More

The potential for effective assessments
Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states could develop stronger testing systems without the pressure of NCLB's exclusive focus on summative tests, according to a January 2016 report from the Center for American Progress. With this changing policy landscape, the report recommends that system leaders take a holistic look to ensure that students are tested on what they are learning, and that what students are learning aligns with state standards. States should also review formative and interim tests, and make available information about their alignment with state standards. Moreover, States should show leadership by pushing testing companies for delivery of test results of two months or less. States can increase the value of tests for stakeholders by partnering with institutions of higher education to use state-required high school exams for college placement. Parents should receive data from all assessments -- formative, interim, and summative -- along with individualized resources. Finally, states should celebrate high performance or significant progress on tests with rewards similar to the federal Blue Ribbon Schools Program or through public recognition ceremonies with the governor or state legislators. More

ESSA's actual effect

For all the hype surrounding the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), it seems unlikely to produce many changes actually visible on the ground, wrote Alia Wong in December 2015 for The Atlantic. Forty-two states and the District of Columbia already had waivers from No Child Left Behind (NCLB), so most students nationally were already learning under a system that had rejected much of NCLB's most onerous provisions. States with waivers were allowed to set their own goals for raising achievement, devise their own strategies for turning around struggling schools, and design their own methods for measuring student progress -- as they can with ESSA. The new law does contain novel elements, however. ESSA for the first time ever seeks to expand access to preschool by including $250 million in annual funding for early-childhood education. It also authorizes funding to scale up evidence-based strategies to improve student outcomes, and other initiatives that promote innovative reform. In many ways, what most conservatives seem to celebrate about ESSA is that it's replacing President Obama's waiver system. It was through waivers (and the Race to the Top grant program) that the administration mandated test-score-based teacher evaluations and all but required participating states to adopt the Common Core. ESSA makes clear that the federal government can't mandate teacher evaluations or standards. More

Prohibitions
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), in additon to other measures, contains a laundry list of prohibitions, wrote Alyson Klein in a January 2016 article in Education Week. Under ESSA, the U.S. secretary of education cannot prescribe specific goals for student achievement, long-term or short-term; tell states exactly how to turn around their lowest-performing schools or intervene in schools that are struggling; coerce or provide incentives -- using federal funding or flexibility -- for states to adopt a particular set of standards; specify any aspect or parameter of evaluations for teachers and school leaders at the state and district level; use money under ESSA to develop, implement, administer, or distribute a federally sponsored national test; force states to use a specific test for accountability; or tell states exactly how they must factor test participation for accountability purposes. "We are confident we can work together with states and ensure that implementation of the new law advances equity and excellence in our schools," said acting Education Secretary John King. "The key will be to make sure states use their new flexibility around accountability and intervention systems in ways that are [focused] on equity and opportunity for the highest-need students."  More

Themes in ESSA coverage

Five major themes surfaced in media coverage after passage of the Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA), wrote Andy Smarick in a January 2016 post on the Flypaper Blog. The prevailing ESSA narrative, he said, is a dramatically reduced role for the federal government. In this capacity, many feel that "conservatives scored a smashing educational triumph," in the words of Frederick Hess, though some on the Right feel it didn't go far enough. The law is a perceived blow to Arne Duncan's legacy, since it marks a clear departure from his priorities -- teacher evaluation, Common Core, RTTT, and SIG. ESSA is also more conservative than both the administration's 2010 "blueprint" and the Harkin-Enzi bill of 2011, leading to a situation where Duncan's tenure will be known for a law that, as one analyst noted, coincided with "perhaps the sharpest reversal of federal ambitions since the welfare-reform act of 1996." Despite this coverage, two groups declared ESSA to be a victory for the Obama administration: the administration itself, and those who used to work for it. What all observers agreed is that power and debate now move to the states: Quickly after passage, New York set about dismantling what groundwork the administration had laid for reform, and Smarick says we should anticipate more of this. Exactly how much autonomy states have is unclear, since like all laws, ESSA has vague language. "Typically, the executive branch issues regulations to clarify matters," Smarick wrote, "but Duncan's too-expansive interpretation of regulatory authority was a catalyst for the law in the first place." More

The ESEA devolves
"Although many groups have lauded the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) because it abolishes the 'hated No Child Left Behind,' ESSA is less a 'repeal' than another step in the federal retreat from the classroom," wrote Arnold Shober in a December 2015 post on the Brookings Institution website. ESSA grants states and districts -- the very governments the original authors of the ESEA distrusted in 1965 -- the power to measure, identify, and remedy academic inequality. The original ESEA of 1965 shared deep suspicion of state and district governments with other civil rights legislation and litigation of that decade. To reinforce equity, in 1972 the ESEA required that states and districts spend specific money on specific students through a host of categorical grants. But by 1994, politicians in both parties saw federal money had done little to close gaps in educational opportunity, so the Improving America's Schools Act required that states define what students learn, and encouraged participation in the National Assessment of Education Progress, which they hoped would spur states to do "what works" in the absence of federal ideas. By 2001, achievement gaps remained, and NCLB's theory of action stepped even further away from the classroom, with states reporting on academic performance and certifying that teachers were highly qualified. With the exception of codified remedies for the lowest performing schools, NCLB assumed public pressure and the threat of lost funding would compel school improvement. And now ESSA, in a gesture of federal humility, Shobe wrote, surrenders the ESEA's central measurement components to the states and gives up federal pressure on teacher quality, as well as allows states to use non-academic measures as part of school scores. Well, Shobe said, states and districts have been practicing federal policy for years; perhaps they are ready for their solo performances. More

A few recommendations for ED

In a January 2016 press release on the Alliance for Excellent Education website, Governor Bob Wise offered five recommendations for the U.S. Department of Education with regard to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). First, the department should use the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate to implement ESSA's requirement to identify and support high schools where one-third or more students do not graduate. Second, it should not allow state accountability systems to mask graduation rates and achievement of traditionally underserved students, such as students of color and/or students from low-income communities. Third, it should require that graduation rates carry sufficient weight within state accountability systems to trigger interventions in high schools that have low graduation rates. Fourth, it should use funding targeted for school improvement purposes for high-quality interventions in schools that have the lowest-performing students and the most promising approaches to school improvement. Finally, fifth, it should clarify that states have flexibility to use accountability dashboards, not just indexes, to provide information about school performance and practices, promote transparency, support the continuous improvement of all schools, and allow states to more effectively measure the deeper learning skills and competencies that students need to succeed in the modern world. More

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