Every Student Succeeds Act

Data Mining

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Have reading scores improved over 40-plus years of school reform?

This review examines student reading performance since 1971 to look for evidence of school reform's impact.

Keyworth, R. (2015). Have reading scores improved over 40-plus years of school reform? Retrieved from have-reading-scores-improved865.

Has student mathematics proficiency improved over the past 20+ years?
This review looks at student math performance since 1992 for trends and to determine the level of progress for student in the United States.
Keyworth, R. (2015). Has student mathematics proficiency improved over the past 20+ years? Retrieved from has-student-mathematics-proficiency.
Has student reading proficiency improved over the past 20+ years?
This review looks at student reading performance since 1992 for trends and to determine the level of progress for student in the United States.
Keyworth, R. (2015). Has student reading proficiency improved over the past 20+ years? Retrieved from has-student-reading-proficiency.
Have mathematics scores improved over 40-plus years of school reform?
This review examines student math performance since 1971 to look for evidence of school reform's impact.
Keyworth, R. (2015). Have mathematics scores improved over 40-plus years of school reform? Retrieved from have-mathematics-scores-improved.
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Accountability and the ESEA Reauthorization Deal: Your Cheat Sheet

This cheat sheet provide the accountability, early reaction and more details on other aspect (an update of past Politics K-12 cheat sheets, including some new information on which programs made it into the agreement and which are on the chopping block) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). 

Accountability and the ESEA Reauthorization Deal: Your Cheat Sheet. (2015). Education Week. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2015/11/accountability_and_the_esea_re.html

Next generation accountability: A vision for improvement under ESSA

With the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states gain considerably more authority and autonomy over the design of school accountability systems. This shift in responsibility creates the opportunity for states to reimagine new accountability models that align to goals of college and career readiness for all students and to move from a culture of compliance to one of continuous improvement. 

Adams, C. M., Ford, T. G., Forsyth, P. B., Ware, J. K., Olsen, J. J., Lepine Sr, J. A., ... & Mwavita, M. (2017). Next Generation Accountability: A Vision for School Improvement under ESSA. Learning Policy Institute.

Teacher effectiveness in the Every Student Succeeds Act: A discussion guide

For much of the past decade, states have engaged in the difficult work of establishing a shared vision of educator effectiveness and strengthening the educator workforce. Recently, as part of the 2015 Excellent Educators for All initiative, states developed equity plans to identify gaps in student access to great teachers and detail strategies to address these gaps.

Berg-Jacobson, A. (2016). Teacher effectiveness in the Every Student Succeeds Act: A discussion guide. Washington, DC: Center on Great Teachers and Leaders at American Institutes for Research

Persistence, Retention, and Attainment of 2011–12 First-Time Beginning Postsecondary Students as of Spring 2017: First Look.

This report provides a first look at students' persistence, retention, and attainment over 6 years, showing the rates at which students had completed postsecondary credentials, the rates at which they had persisted through or left postsecondary education without earning any credential as of spring 2017, and the rates at which they remained in the first institution in which they were enrolled. Postsecondary graduation rates in public institutions have stayed virtually the same for seven years, with 57% of students graduating in 2011 and 59% in 2017.  Private non-profit institutions remained at 65-66% graduation for the first six years, increasing by 8 percentage points in 2017.  Private for-profit institutions fared the worst, decreasing consistently from 42% in 2011 to 14% in 2017.  

Chen, X., Elliott, B.G., Kinney, S.K., Cooney, D., Pretlow, J., Bryan, M., Wu, J., Ramirez, N.A., and Campbell, T. (2019). Persistence, Retention, and Attainment of 2011–12 First-Time Beginning Postsecondary Students as of Spring 2017 (First Look) (NCES 2019-401). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. 

Why federal spending on disadvantaged students (Title I) doesn’t work

The largest Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) expenditure by far is for its Title I program. This report try to follow the money to see whether Title I funds are spent effectively and whether or not ESEA achieves its objectives. This report suggest focusing effective interventions on the neediest students may provide a way forward that is consistent with fiscal realities.

 

Dynarski, M., kainz, K. (2015). Why federal spending on disadvantaged students (Title I) doesn’t work. Brookings Institutions. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/research/why-federal-spending-on-disadvantaged-students-title-i-doesnt-work/

 

What educators need to know about ESSA.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) returns decision making for our nation’s education back where it belongs – in the hands of local educators, families, and communities – while keeping the focus on students most in need.

Fennell, M. (2016). What educators need to know about ESSA. Educational Leadership, 73, 62–65.

Scientific culture and educational research.

In this article, which draws on a recently released National Research Council report, the authors argue that the primary emphasis should be on nurturing and reinforcing a scientific culture of educational research.

Feuer, M. J., Towne, L., & Shavelson, R. J. (2002). Scientific culture and educational research. Educational researcher31(8), 4-14.

Redefining Accountability to Treat Teachers and Leaders Like the Professionals They Are

The Every Student Succeeds Act creates opportunities for policymakers to re-imagine accountability in schools—and not only by incorporating additional measures of student success into outcome-based accountability regimes.

Gill, B. (2017). Redefining Accountability to Treat Teachers and Leaders Like the Professionals They Are. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/04/13/redefining-accountability-to-treat-teachers-and-leaders-like-the-professionals-they-are/

Increasing Targeting, Flexibility, and Transparency in Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to help Disadvantages Students

This policy proposal I suggest (1) reforms to ensure that the Title I formula gets enough resources to the neediest areas, and (2) improvements in federal guidance and fiscal compliance outreach efforts so that local districts understand the flexibility they have to spend effectively. These are first-order issues for improving high-poverty schools, but so deeply mired in technical and bureaucratic detail that they have received little public attention in the re-authorization process.

Gordon, N. (2016). Increasing targeting, flexibility, and transparency in Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to help disadvantaged students. Policy Proposal1.

2018 Brown Center Report on American Education: Trends in NAEP math, reading, and civics scores

This report is the first chapter of the 2018 Brown Center Report on American Education. This section explore trends in math, reading, and civics performance from the late 1990s through the most recent year in which results are available (2017 in math and reading, 2014 in civics). It show trends in nationwide performance and in test score gaps by race (white-black), ethnicity (white-Hispanic), and family income (based on eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch [FRL]). In doing so, this report examine test score trajectories from the beginning to the end of the No Child Left Behind era (NCLB). The 2017 results, in particular, reflect a boundary in the timeline of education policy, demarcating the end of NCLB and the beginning of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Hansen, M., Levesque, E., Valant, J., & Quintero, D. (2018). The 2018 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well are American Students Learning. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.

The Next Generation of State Reforms to Improve their Lowest Performing Schools: An Evaluation of North Carolina’s School Transformation Intervention

In contrast to prior federally mandated school reforms, the Every Student Succeeds Act
(ESSA) allows states more discretion in reforming their lowest performing schools, removes
requirements to disrupt the status quo, and does not allocate substantial additional funds.
Using a regression discontinuity design, we evaluate a state turnaround initiative aligned
with ESSA requirements.

Henry, G. T., & Harbatkin, E. (2020). The Next Generation of State Reforms to Improve their Lowest Performing Schools: An Evaluation of North Carolina’s School Transformation Intervention. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness13(4), 702-730.

School leadership interventions under the Every Student Succeeds Act: Evidence review.

This report describes the opportunities for supporting school leadership under ESSA, discusses the standards of evidence under ESSA, and synthesizes the research base with respect to those standards.

Herman, R., Gates, S. M., Arifkhanova, A., Barrett, M., Bega, A., Chavez-Herrerias, E. R., … Wrabel, S. L. (2017). School leadership interventions under the Every Student Succeeds Act: Evidence review. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1500/RR1550-3/RAND_RR1550-3.pdf

Does ESSA require teachers to be highly qualified?

ESSA got rid of the requirement in the law it replaced, the No Child Left Behind Act, that teachers must be highly qualified, which typically meant they needed to have a bachelor’s degree in the subject they are teaching and state certification. Instead, states must come up with their own definition of an “effective teacher.”

Klein, A. (2018, July 16). Does ESSA require teachers to be highly qualified? Education Week.

What is the purpose of teacher evaluation today? A conversation between Bellwether and Fordham.

In December 2016, Bellwether Education Partners and The Thomas B. Fordham Institute independently released two reports centered on teacher evaluation and its consequences. Both reports offer a glimpse into ongoing challenges and opportunities with teacher evaluation reform, but they have very different analyses. 

McDougald, V., Griffith, D., Pennington, K., & Mead, S. (2016). What is the purpose of teacher evaluation today? A conversation between Bellwether and Fordham. Retrieved from https://edexcellence.net/articles/what-is-the-purpose-of-teacher-evaluation-today-a-conversation-between-bellwether-and

Science and engineering indicators.

The Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) provided states with newfound flexibility on accountability measures and school improvement strategies. Many policy experts have analyzed states’ ESSA plans, which explain how states use their federal funds under various provisions of the new law, as well as the approaches states take to identify and rate schools and improve their performance where needed.

National Science Board. (2019, September 24). Science and engineering indicators. Public school teacher salaries (dollars). 

Equality and Quality in U.S. Education: Systemic Problems, Systemic Solutions. Policy Brief

This paper enters debate about how U.S. schools might address long-standing disparities in educational and economic opportunities while improving the educational outcomes for all students. with a vision and an argument for realizing that vision, based on lessons learned from 60 years of education research and reform efforts. The central points covered draw on a much more extensive treatment of these issues published in 2015. The aim is to spark fruitful discussion among educators, policymakers, and researchers.

O'Day, J. A., & Smith, M. S. (2016). Equality and Quality in US Education: Systemic Problems, Systemic Solutions. Policy Brief. Education Policy Center at American Institutes for Research.

School Intervention That Work: Targeted Support for Low-Performing Students

This report breaks out key steps in the school identification and improvement process, focusing on (1) a diagnosis of school needs; (2) a plan to improve schools; and (3) evidenced-based interventions that work.

 

School Intervention That Work: Targeted Support for Low-Performing Students. (2017). Alliance For Excellent Education. Retrieved from https://all4ed.org/reports-factsheets/schoolinterventions/

Replication

Replication has taken on more importance recently because the ESSA evidence standards only require a single positive study. To meet the strong, moderate, or promising standards, programs must have at least one “well-designed and well-implemented” study using randomized (strong), matched (moderate), or correlational (promising) designs and finding significantly positive outcomes. 

Slavin, R. (2019). Replication. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://robertslavinsblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/24/replication/

Built to last: Long-term maintenance of success for all

This article describes Success for All, a comprehensive reform program for elementary
schools, with a focus on strategies the program uses to increase the chances that the
program will remain in use over extended periods.

Slavin, R. E. (2004). Built to last: Long-term maintenance of success for all. Remedial and Special Education, 25(1), 61-66.

The Number of Low-Performing Schools by State in Three Categories (CSI, TSI, and ATSI), School Year 2018-19.

This report, completed by the Center on Education Policy, attempts to provide an initial snapshot of the number and percentages of schools each states has identified low performing. It provides an early look at a very diverse set of guidelines.  The data show a wide range of results in terms of the percentage of schools identified as low performing. The overall range is 3% to 99%, with individual states spread out fairly evenly in between. Eight states identified over 40% of their public schools as low performing, eleven states 20%–40%, fifteen states 11%–19%, and thirteen states 3%–10%. Even with the limitations of the data listed above, this data suggests inconsistent standards across states.

Stark Renter, D., Tanner, K., Braun, M. (2019). The Number of Low-Performing Schools by State in Three Categories (CSI, TSI, and ATSI), School Year 2018-19. A Report of the Center on Education Policy

Better Uses for Federal Aid to Low-Income Students Studied in New Report

This report highlight suggestions from Nora Gordon report  "Increasing Targeting, Flexibility, and Transparency in Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to Help Disadvantaged Students.". The paper argues that effective local decisions about spending Title I funds have the biggest "bang for the buck", but that Washington and the states can do better to help locals make better decisions without running afoul of the grants program's requirements. 

Ujifusa, A. (2016). Better Uses for Federal Aid to Low-Income Students Studied in New Report. Education Week. Retrieved from https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2016/03/title_i_changes_to_help_low_income_students.html

Trends in State ESSA Plans: Equity Advocates Still Have Work to Do

This analysis of the state ESSA plans focused on three questions: (1) Are states keeping student learning front and center?; (2) Do school ratings reflect how school are doing for all groups of students?; (3) Is the state being honest about which school need to take steps to improve for one or more student groups? This paper examines each issue in detail, highlighting examples of how different states are addressing the problem. 

Ushomirsky, N., Smith, A., & Bommelje, S. (2017). Trends in State ESSA Plans: Equity Advocates Still Have Work to Do. Education Trust.

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Bellwether Education Partners
Bellwether Education Partners is a nonprofit dedicated to helping education organizations in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
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