ESSA State Plan

Overview

On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into law, reauthorizing the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) and replacing the most recent reauthorization of ESEA, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). With few exceptions, ESSA took effect at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year. The law includes provisions to help ensure improved outcomes for all students receiving elementary and secondary education, including the following:

• States must establish high academic content standards, and schools must teach all students those standards to help prepare them for college and careers
• States, districts, and schools must share information with families, students, and communities regarding annual statewide assessments that measure students' progress toward these high standards
• States and districts must establish systems of accountability and support for all schools, and provide particular support to the lowest-performing schools, schools with low-performing subgroups, and schools with low graduation rates

• Memo to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, March 2016

• ESSA Overview

• ESSA State Plan: One-Page Summary

• Accountability in ESSA: Setting the Context (Presentation for the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, September 2016)

Massachusetts ESSA State Plan

• Massachusetts Consolidated State Plan Under ESSA — Approved September 21, 2017
  The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education collected public comment on our ESSA State Plan through March 9, 2017 and submitted our plan to the U.S. Department of Education on April 3, 2017.

• Massachusetts ESSA Plan: Executive Summary

• Massachusetts ESSA Plan: Executive Summary — Spanish

• Required Revisions to Massachusetts ESSA Plan — revised May 10, 2017
  Following submission of our initial consolidated state plan on April 3, 2017, the U.S. Department of Education required certain revisions, which are detailed in this document. As our plan proceeds through the review and approval process, we anticipate the possibility that further adjustments to the plan may be required.

Massachusetts ESSA State Plan: 2024 Revision Process

In late 2023, acknowledging that much has changed since ESSA went into effect in 2017, the United States Department of Education urged all states to revise and update their ESSA plans to document progress since original plans were approved and to reflect the current status of our education system.

DESE has therefore updated its ESSA plan and is seeking public comment on this revised, "tracked changes" version. Importantly, this revised plan does not propose new policies or new changes to existing policy; the revisions in this document merely reflect the steady and continuous refinement of our programs and policies that have been made in response to students' needs from 2017 through the beginning of 2024.

See this memo for more information about the 2024 revisions and the revision process.

The "tracked changes" version of the ESSA plan .

The "clean" version of the ESSA plan , where tracked changes have been accepted, to make for easier reading.

Please provide feedback by June 7, 2024 at 11:59PM by either filling out this survey (preferred), or by emailing elementarysecondaryed.act@mass.gov .

Last Updated: May 21, 2024