District 88 shares information about the new Every Student Succeeds Act

A new bill, called the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), was recently signed into law.

That law reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and replaces No Child Left Behind (NCLB). There are questions that still need to be answered and details that need to be clarified, but we would like to share with you the information we have so far. According to the U.S. Department of Education, highlights of the act include:

• Holding all students to high academic standards that prepare them for success in college and careers;

• Ensuring accountability and guaranteeing that when students fall behind, steps are taken to help them and their schools improve, with a particular focus on the very lowest-performing schools, high schools with high dropout rates and schools where subgroups are falling behind;

• Continuing to ensure parents and educators have annual assessment information about how students are doing, while supporting states and districts in reducing unnecessary, onerous and redundant testing;

• Empowering state and local decision-makers to develop their own systems for school improvement;

• Protecting students from low-income families and students of color from being taught at disproportionate rates by ineffective, inexperienced and out-of-field teachers.

The ESSA maintains the requirement for states to administer high-quality annual assessments in at least reading/language arts, math and science. According to the act, states will “establish ambitious state-designed long-term goals … for all students and separately for each subgroup of students.” There is no Annual Measurable Objectives requirement, as there was under NCLB.

The act also preserves the Title grant funding formula, but specific details regarding how funding will be distributed among school districts are still being determined. We urge you to contact your local legislators to make sure any mandates implemented through the ESSA are funded. To look up and e-mail your legislators, go to http://www.ieanea.org/legislative/find-your-legislators.

We will continue to keep you updated as more information becomes available. For more about the ESSA, go to www.ed.gov/essa. You also can view the District 88 ESSA presentation from the Jan. 25 Board of Education meeting at https://www.dupage88.net/site/page/4714#. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at Shelton@dupage88.net or 630-530-3980. Thank you for your continued support of District 88.