ESSA PRESENTATION

ORIGINS OF ESSA

The Every Student Succeeds Act was signed by President Obama on December 10, 2015. This measure reauthorized the 50 year old Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which allowed equal opportunity for all students.

ESSA was introduced because there was a need for a better law that focused on the clear goal of fully preparing all students for success in college and careers.

ESSA builds on the older ESEA act. Currently, high school graduation rates are at an all-time high. Likewise, drop out rates are the lowest they have ever been.

THE ESSA LAW:

• Advances equity by upholding critical protections for American’s disadvantaged and high need students.
• All students will be taught in high academic standards that will prepare them to succeed in college and careers.
• Ensures that vital information is provided to educators, families, students, and communities through annual state wide assessments that measure students’ progress toward those high standards.

THE ESSA LAW CONT.

• Investing in and increasing access to high-quality preschool.
• Demands accountability and action to take affect in our lowest performing schools, groups of students not making progress, or in high schools with low graduation rates.
• Supports and grows local innovations— including evidence based in place based interventions developed by local leaders and educators.

POSITIVE CHANGES FROM ESSA

• Every student is a priority.
• High-need students who tend to struggle in traditional classrooms now have support.
• All students are supported: sped, gen ed, and TAG.
• Communication lines between administrators, teachers and parents have improved.
• Provides over $250 million in allocations for pre school grants.
• Teacher performance isn’t based on test scores

NEGATIVE CHANGES FROM ESSA

• Relies on testing to create accountability outcomes, which as we know sometimes test scores don’t always measure learning.
• Lack of effort made to address the cause of inequality such as standard of living.
• There is a way to mask inequalities and statistics like income level of certain student populations.
• Taking the federal government out of the school systems leads to inconsistency. Which may lead to unequal practices.

NEGATIVE CHANGES FROM ESSA CONTINUED....

• No accountability for reporting test scores every year.
• Schools are closing and that hurts the most vulnerable kids. They are replaced with charter schools (charter schools aren’t the best for exceptional students or ELL students).
• Throwing money at the school system and demanding results isn’t realistic.
• The effects of poverty on learning still seem to be ignored.

Currently Springfield has 10 schools that fall under the Title 1 program. Funds are used to create opportunities that extend learning time, minimize pull-out programs, support instructional programs of advanced rather than rote skills, implement accelerated curriculum strategies rather than remedial curriculums. Springfield assures that each student has the opportunity to meet high academic standards.

In 2016 Oregon Educators sent a letter to Oregon Department of Education. Here are a couple excerpts expressing the current situation: “our current state wide assessment system carries high costs in instructional time, impact on graduation preparedness, and student and educator attention all of which detract from the benefits of the system.” Educators asked to replace the current assessment with the SAT or ACT for juniors. They also ask for an assessment for grades 3-8 that isn’t as time consuming and requires less training of staff. Teachers time could better be spent on students then learning how to administer a test.

Educators in Oregon recommend a, “statewide summative assessment that would take less than an hour to administer that would align with state standards, align with and provide for a balance system of formative and interim assessments, could inform instruction throughout the year, and validly and reliably measure student learning, all while minimizing the amount of instructional time devoted to testing rather than learning. “

THROUGH THE EYES OF AN EA AND STUDENT TEACHER ESSA:

• Unnecessary and undue stress is being put on teachers and students to perform well.
• Are we teaching students or teaching them to perform on tests?
• What happened to teaching history and science at the elementary level?
• One of the lowest performing schools I know (Hamlin Middle) has one of the poorest attendance...maybe we need to get kids to buy in to showing up everyday?

REFERENCES

• ESSA provides opportunities for innovation. (2016, May 31). Retrieved from: http://www.remakelearning.org.
• Every student succeeds act (ESSA). (2019, October 10). Retrieved from: http://www.ed.gov.
• Kane, T. (2017). Rethinking education research under the every student succeeds act. Retrieved from: http://www.educationnext.org.

REFERENCES CONTINUED

• Oregon superintendents questioning SBAC. (2016, March 22). Retrieved from: http://www.optoutoregon.org.
• Regoli, N. (2019). 15 Pros and Cons of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Retrieved from: https://www.vittana.org
• Title IA in Springfield. (October 9, 2019). Retrieved from: http://www.springfield.k12.or.us.