First Round of ESSA State Plans Are Due April 3rd to a USDOE Severely Lacking in Senior Officials
According to a March 13, 2017, letter that US ed sec Betsy DeVos sent to chief state school officers, states are able to submit their plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for two possible deadlines: April 03, 2017, or September 18, 2017.
In that letter, DeVos writes that the state plans will be peer reviewed and that the US Dept of Ed (USDOE) will be in contact with state officers as the applications proceed through the peer review process.
But she does not detail who, exactly, will be in charge of the applications. Who will be responsible for coordinating this peer-reviewed process?
Betsy DeVosI suppose that is difficult to detail at this point since DeVos has almost no USDOE senior officials in place in her Department. (I’ll return to this point.)
However, according to the ESSA legislation, here is what is supposed to happen (see pages 20-22):
(4) PEER REVIEW AND SECRETARIAL APPROVAL.—(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall—(i) establish a peer-review process to assist in the review of State plans;(ii) establish multidisciplinary peer-review teams and appoint members of such teams—(I) who are representative of—(aa) parents, teachers, principals, other school leaders, specialized instructional support personnel, State educational agencies, local educational agencies, and the community (including the business community); and(bb) researchers who are familiar with—(AA) the implementation of academic standards, assessments, or accountability systems; and(BB) how to meet the needs of disadvantaged students, children with disabilities, and English learners, the needs of low-performing schools, and other educational needs of students;(II) that include, to the extent practicable, majority representation ofFirst Round of ESSA State Plans Are Due April 3rd to a USDOE Severely Lacking in Senior Officials | deutsch29:
