DeVos breaks ranks with GOP, wants changes in ESSA plan
(District of Columbia) In a muddled if not contrarian response to a state plan for implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act, the U.S. Department of Education has suggested, among other things, that student performance can only be measured by math and reading scores.
The surprise pronouncement, included as part of the department’s review of Delaware’s plan for meeting ESSA requirements, stands in stark contrast to what architects of the law said were two key goals—giving states the freedom and the responsibility for designing their own accountability systems; and removing the federal government as arbiter over school performance.
If upheld, the directive will send shockwaves across the nation as many other states have constructed similar accountability systems that include multiple academic measures for evaluating how well schools are teaching students. Some insiders, however, are watching the developments carefully to see if Delaware officials push back against the department.
“It is very much within the authority of Delaware to come back and say, ‘No, that’s not how we interpret this,’” said David DeSchryver, senior vice president and co-director of Whiteboard Advisors, a D.C.-based education consulting firm.
“This is a peer review letter (from the Education Department), so it’s not binding legal document and there’s still a lot of room for Delaware to respond, and we’ll see where it goes,” DeSchryver said.
After decades of complaints about the No Child Left Behind Act, especially related to the prescriptive federal oversight of schools, a bipartisan Congress joined with President Barack Obama in adopting ESSA in 2015.
Among the many changes that came with the law was the understanding that the federal government would have a far less active role in overseeing the nation’s schools. Instead of the U.S. Secretary of Education, state officials were now given authority to define student success and how to DeVos breaks ranks with GOP, wants changes in ESSA plan :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet: