Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/994766
Sample report for a school's ELA results: "Status" (left-hand column) is the sum of all grades 3-8 students' distance from Level 3 scores on the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments divided by total number of grades 3-8 Smarter Balanced test takers; "Change" (top row) is current year status minus prior year status for Smarter Balanced Assessment Results for grades 3-8. Based on the Status and Change results, a performance level (or color) is given. ESSA Essentials T H E E V E R Y S T U D E N T S U C C E E D S A C T ( E S S A ) was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2015 and goes into full effect in the 2018-19 school year. This reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 replaced an earlier reauthorization (the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001). ESSA requires every state to submit a plan to improve their lowest-performing, low-income schools in return for federal funding. California's plan is based on the Local Control Funding Formula, a finance and accountability system that funnels substantial money to educational services for stu- dents who need it most: English learners, low-income children, and foster and homeless youth. Part of the accountability system, the California School Dashboard, tracks such school and district indicators as graduation rate, suspension rate, test scores and school climate. California's ESSA plan considers school districts as primarily responsible for improving opportunity and outcomes for students. In April, the State Board of Education passed its revised ESSA plan, which is now being reviewed by the U.S. Depart- ment of Education. The board will separately ask Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to grant a waiver involving the metric for measuring language proficiency of English learners. broad overhaul of school funding and accountability. at formula provides an extra $10.1 billion annually to districts that serve low-income students, English learners and foster youth. Under the revised plan, the multicolored dashboard will remain intact, though the federal administrator required changes that included clearer targets to measure schools' interim progress and more prominence to 11th-grade test results. e new plan uses multiple data points including graduation rates, suspension rates and test scores to give a more complete picture of school success. "Our plan is grounded in California's Local Control Funding Formula law, which emphasizes local control, equity, stakeholder engagement, accountability and contin- uous improvement," says state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. "Now we look forward to the United States Department of Education's approval and to implementing the plan." CTA, however, had encouraged the SBE to seek a waiver from the ED because the plan sets up two separate systems (state and federal) for determining lowest- performing schools, and continues to rely heavily on test scores. CTA believes the state must craft a broader explanation that gets beyond test scores to include issues such as school climate, access to resources and courses, and support for English learners. e SBE will now begin the work of deciding what support the lowest-performing schools will receive, and where those schools will find that support. All of this is to be done before the plan is implemented in the fall. English Language Arts / Literacy Assessment 49 J U N E / J U L Y 2 018