The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
Every Student Succeeds Act: State Plan Update
We submitted our proposed state plan under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in early April 2017, following our discussion at the Board's March 28 meeting. The plan underwent both a peer review, conducted by external content area experts, and a review by ED staff. In July, ED provided us with informal feedback on the plan, a summary of which is attached to this memo. The purpose of the informal feedback is to allow states to submit any needed clarifications or changes prior to the formal approval or disapproval decision by Secretary DeVos.
I am enclosing (a) a summary of the ED feedback and our proposed responses, and (b) a chart showing the weighting of the various accountability indicators as originally proposed and as revised to respond to the ED feedback. Please note that we expect to revisit and possibly make further revisions to the weightings in the fall, after we have analyzed the results of the first administration of the next-generation MCAS tests. Assuming our state plan has been approved before then, any needed changes will be submitted to ED through the plan amendment process.
At the special meeting of the Board on August 15, we will update you on this work. Associate commissioners Rob Curtin and Matt Pakos, who have led the state plan development effort, will join us for the discussion.
Enclosures
