69传媒

Standards & Accountability

The Ball Is in Betsy DeVos鈥 Court as States Seek to Revise ESSA Plans

By Alyson Klein 鈥 March 20, 2019 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

New Mexico is planning a major shakeup of its plan to implement the . And it鈥檚 not the only state that鈥檚 mulling changes. Among others with potential revisions in the works: Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina, and Wyoming.

Those rewrites could present an interesting test for U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her team. Will the department let a state go in an entirely new direction, as long as what it is proposing to do is still kosher under the law?

DeVos has approved ESSA plans for every state and the District of Columbia. Most state plans were in place at some point during the 2017-18 school year. So far, the department has outlined a streamlined process for approving changes to states鈥 ESSA plans. State chiefs must first consult with their governors and give the education community an opportunity to comment. Then they need to send DeVos鈥 staff a revised version of the plan that reflects the proposed changes in red, a cover letter describing what they want to do differently, and an explanation of how they reached out to the public to get feedback on the revisions.

Any changes that could affect how a state flags low-performing schools in the 2019-20 school year were supposed to have been submitted by March 1. Revisions submitted after that date will still be accepted and reviewed, but states may not be able to implement the changes by next school year.

This process applies to small tweaks, as well as to dramatic changes, along the lines of . It wants to ditch the state鈥檚 system for rating schools on an A-F scale and replace it with broader labels for schools.

69传媒 in the top quartile of schools in the state would be labeled as 鈥渟potlight鈥 schools. Those in the middle 50 percent would be considered 鈥渢raditional support鈥 schools. And those in the bottom 25 percent would get one of ESSA鈥檚 labels, including 鈥渢argeted support鈥 (for schools where subgroups of students are struggling) and 鈥渃omprehensive support鈥 (for low-performing schools). The department has approved similar systems for other states under ESSA.

The state is also seeking to ditch the PARCC tests from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and rework its teacher evaluation system, arguably the toughest in the country. And the new interim state education chief, Karen Trujillo, has signaled more changes are coming, according to the Albuquerque Journal. The changes aren鈥檛 coming out of left field. The original ESSA plan was developed under the previous governor, Susana Martinez, a Republican. The new governor, Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, ran on getting rid of many of the changes Martinez鈥檚 administration put in place, including the teacher-evaluation system and the A-F rating system.

The former state chief, Christopher Ruszkowski, said the new proposal represents an important test for DeVos and her department.

鈥淩ight now in New Mexico, the big concern for a lot of [advocates]: Will the department provide the right degree of scrutiny to any amendments to a particular plan?鈥 he said.

Dan Gordon, a senior legal and policy adviser for EducationCounsel, which provides policy consultation on ESSA, said he doesn鈥檛 think making changes to a plan necessarily means it is being watered down.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a mistake to view amendments as just retreats or bad news or driven by politics,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he fact is, we want states to periodically review their approach. If their approaches are not delivering for kids, I would say they have not just a legal but a moral obligation to rethink and to revise and to improve.鈥

Tweaking Systems

Elsewhere, Indiana for federal accountability and replace it with new labels: 鈥渆xceeds expectations,鈥 鈥渕eets expectations,鈥 鈥渁pproaches expectations,鈥 and 鈥渄oes not meet expectations.鈥 Wyoming has also that reworks the state鈥檚 goals, in part because of a new testing system.

Then there are bills under consideration in state legislatures that could force changes to ESSA plans. South Carolina is mulling legislation that would call for students to receive a yearly rating of their math and literacy skills. The legislation would also scrap some social studies and science testing, which might mean revisions to South Carolina鈥檚 ESSA plan.

There鈥檚 also potential ESSA drama in Michigan, where lawmakers voted last year to replace the accountability system at the center of the state鈥檚 approved plan. They decided instead to use a new, letter-based accountability system that judges schools on English and math proficiency on a state test, growth in English and math scores, and growth among English-language learners, among other measures.

That state system, however, conflicts with ESSA and the main federal special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. That means, for now, that the state is using two separate systems: the one approved by the department for federal accountability and the new A-F system for state accountability.

Some in Michigan have suggested the state could ask the federal government for waivers in order to use the new state A-F system for federal accountability, but it is unlikely that those changes would be approved before the new school grades are implemented, said Martin Ackley, a spokesman for the Michigan education department. The state is considering next steps, he said.

A version of this article appeared in the March 20, 2019 edition of Education Week as Ball in DeVos鈥 Court as States Seek to Revise ESSA Plans

Events

School & District Management Webinar Crafting Outcomes-Based Contracts That Work for Everyone
Discover the power of outcomes-based contracts and how they can drive student achievement.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in 69传媒
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by 
School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What鈥檚 Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What鈥檚 Trending among K-12 Leaders?

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide 鈥 elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Standards & Accountability What the Research Says More than 1 in 4 69传媒 Targeted for Improvement, Survey Finds
The new federal findings show schools also continue to struggle with absenteeism.
2 min read
Vector illustration of diverse children, students climbing up on a top of a stack of staggered books.
iStock/Getty
Standards & Accountability Opinion What鈥檚 Wrong With Online Credit Recovery? This Teacher Will Tell You
The 鈥渨hatever it takes鈥 approach to increasing graduation rates ends up deflating the value of a diploma.
5 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
Standards & Accountability Why a Judge Stopped Texas from Issuing A-F School Ratings
Districts argued the new metric would make it appear as if schools have worsened鈥攅ven though outcomes have actually improved in many cases.
2 min read
Laura BakerEducation Week via Canva  (1)
Canva
Standards & Accountability Why These Districts Are Suing to Stop Release of A-F School Ratings
A change in how schools will be graded has prompted legal action from about a dozen school districts in Texas.
4 min read
Handwritten red letter grades cover a blue illustration of a classic brick school building.
Laura Baker, Canva