Dive Brief:
- David Osborne, director of the Reinventing America’s Schools project at the Progressive Policy Institute, outlines his ideas for ESSA-inspired changes in school accountability in a piece for U.S. News & World Report.
- Osborne writes no more than half the weight of statewide accountability systems should be on test scores, student growth should be a bigger emphasis than achievement levels, the target should be expanded beyond proficiency so schools aren’t incentivized to focus only on those students barely below passing, and student surveys and nonacademic factors should be included.
- Osborne also says completely replacing failed schools is the best accountability response and systems should focus on more than just minimum standards, including performance metrics that assess individual schools based on their missions in STEM or dual language, for example.
Dive Insight:
The Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to expand their accountability systems and measure more than just math and reading proficiency. State education departments nationwide are supposed to be gathering input from all of their stakeholder groups as they develop new systems. School leaders should make time to attend listening tour stops or send in comments during this period.
In California, the state is working to greatly expand its accountability system to include a range of nonacademic factors like learning environment and student readiness for college or career, but it may run into trouble if the federal regulations end up limiting how much these factors can count toward a school’s summative score. The Obama administration is racing against the clock to finalize regulations that fill in the gaps in the Every Student Succeeds Act before they leave office.
